Factors Associated with Addiction in Children in Kerman City

Introduction: Addiction is one of the major crises in the world which has manyvictims and imposes serious damage on the family and society, especially amongchildren who are the most vulnerable social stratum. The aim of this study was todetermine the possible causes of drug addiction among children in Kerman.Methods: This case-control study was conducted as a qualitative study. Ninetychildren aged 6 to 16 years were enrolled. The case group included 30 addictedchildren supported by the Welfare Organization. The control group included twogroups of 30 children, one selected from the Welfare Organization and the otherfrom across the city. All participants were male and groups were matched forage. Then, the probable causes of addiction were compared between these twogroups. Data were analyzed by using SPSS22 and by chi-square tests and logisticregression.Results: The mean age of children was 10.8 ± 2.4 in the case group, 11.4 ± 1.8 inthe park control and 12.8 ± 1.5 in the welfare center control group. Allparticipants were male. The results revealed that there were significant statisticaldifferences between the addicted and non-addicted children in regard to parent’sreligious beliefs, parent imprisonment, history of addiction in families, visitingthe park alone and parental employment.Conclusion: Strengthening religious beliefs of parents, teaching life skills tochildren and their parents, parental control on children, tracking and monitoringthe peers; and promoting collaborations between the policymakers, the WelfareOrganization, the Municipality, the Universities of Medical Sciences and thePolice Force can help to reduce and control addiction among children.

کلیدواژه ها:

Addiction ، Predisposing Factors ، Child ، Case-Control Study