• Users Online: 11005
  • Home
  • Print this page
  • Email this page
Home About us Editorial board Ahead of print Current issue Search Archives Submit article Instructions Subscribe Contacts Login 

 Table of Contents  
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Year : 2017  |  Volume : 3  |  Issue : 4  |  Page : 245-249

The relationship between cognitive emotion regulation and tendency to addiction in adolescents


1 Department of Psychology, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran
2 Department of Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

Date of Web Publication9-Feb-2018

Correspondence Address:
Dr. Nahid Akrami
Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Isfahan, Isfahan
Iran
Login to access the Email id

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None


DOI: 10.4103/jepr.jepr_54_16

Rights and Permissions
  Abstract 


AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between cognitive emotion relation and tendency to addiction in adolescents in Isfahan, Iran.
METHOD: The participants of the study were all 14–17-year-old students in Isfahan. Four hundred participants were selected as the sample group with the use of multistage cluster sampling. The instruments included in the study were questionnaires of cognitive emotion regulation[1] and tendency to drug abuse.[2] The data were analyzed through correlation coefficient and regression analysis. Regression analysis indicated that there was a significant relationship between all the components of cognitive emotion regulation and tendency toward addiction in adolescents (P < 0.001).
FINDING: The findings of the study showed that the difficulty in emotion management being resulted by the problems of drug abusers, and this condition leads to a failure in the management of individual emotional states. Furthermore, considerable importance of emotion regulation in the psychopathology of these individuals was not indicated.
CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that the investigation of the emotional factors in relation with individuals' tendency toward addiction was significant, and in the field of prevention of drug dependence, education could help individuals in improving emotion regulation.

Keywords: Adolescents, cognitive emotion regulation, tendency to addiction


How to cite this article:
Froushani MA, Akrami N. The relationship between cognitive emotion regulation and tendency to addiction in adolescents. Int J Educ Psychol Res 2017;3:245-9

How to cite this URL:
Froushani MA, Akrami N. The relationship between cognitive emotion regulation and tendency to addiction in adolescents. Int J Educ Psychol Res [serial online] 2017 [cited 2024 Mar 29];3:245-9. Available from: https://www.ijeprjournal.org/text.asp?2017/3/4/245/225097




  Introduction Top


Addiction is one of the most important social problems that threaten the society and especially younger generation seriously, and it can be defined as chronic brain and restrictive disease that the individual uses drug regularly with a strong desire.

Drugs effect on the brain and it changes the brain structure and function. Since drug has inhibitory effects on the growth and prosperity of society, it is a serious and worrisome threat. Drug dependency and abuses are considered as chronic recurrent disorder with the influences and antecedents on environment, culture, psychology, society, and behavior.[2]

The investigation of reasons of drug tendency is vital because this issue deals with some health and welfare of people, and it increases the risk of injury and death through interpersonal violence, real accidents, risky sexual behaviors, unintended pregnancy, diseases such as AIDS, and academic problems.[3] Several risk factors in addiction field have risen in researches that it can be noted among them to high level of family conflict, academic problems, drug abuse by peers and parents, impulsivity, and early onset of smoking.[4] In addition to the factors discussed, among several factors that are related to drug abuse, it can be noted to the predominant role of emotional problems and inability to control and regulate emotion. Emotion regulation as one of the psychological variables is considered by many researchers. These are many evidences that suggest that emotion regulation is related to success or failure in various spheres of life.[5]

Emotion regulation refers to actions that are used to change or modify an emotional state. The overall concept of cognitive emotion regulation implies cognitive styles of manipulation emotion caller data entry.[6] Emotion regulation strategies included nine different coping cognitive strategies, i.e., casting blame, acceptance and objectification, rumination, positive refocusing, refocusing on planning, positive reappraisal, facilitate events through holistic, catastrophizing, and blaming others.[7] It is obvious that emotional responses to stressful events can be regulated by the use of coping cognitive strategies. Although the concepts of emotion regulation may different, many others agree on consideration of physiological, behavioral, and cognitive processes; it enables the individuals to amend the experience of and expressing negative and positive emotion.[3] However, few studies have investigated the relationship between cognitive emotion regulation and drug abuse.[4] Emotion regulation has an important role in coping with stressful life events. Low level of emotion regulation resulting from the inability to effectively cope with and managing emotions plays a role in the onset of drug use.

Emotion regulation is inherent of emotional tendencies' responses.[8] The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between cognitive emotion regulation and tendency to addiction among adolescents in Isfahan.


  Methods Top


Correlation is considered as the method of this research. Since there was not a plan in this study to manipulate the independent variables, it was focused solely on simultaneous measurement of predictor variables (cognitive emotion regulation) and tendency to addiction; correlation method was used in the study. Moreover, cognitive emotion regulation as predictor variable and tendency to addiction or criterion variable was considered.

A total number of 8000 adolescents (boys and girls) in the age group of 14 – 17 years old were formed the study population in fall and winter in 2014. Among the statistical population, 400 participants, according to Morgan, were selected as the participants of the study. The 400 participants were selected through multistage cluster sampling (based on the available list of education department). The sampling was in the way that 10 students from 20 schools (10 girls' school and 10 boys' school) among 2 areas (2 and 5) of total area of education were selected. After gathering the questionnaires, 20 students (about 5%) were excluded from this study due to defect in response. Respectively, the sample group consisted of 380 participants. Participants' inclusion criteria were (1) age from 14 to 16 years old, (2) education occupation, (3) the lack of serious mental illness, and (4) exclusion criteria for incompletely filling out the questionnaires. To measure the variables of the study, the following tools were used.

Cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire

Cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire is a self-report questionnaire that was designed by Garnefski et al. in 2001. The structure of this questionnaire is multidimensional, and it is used to identify cognitive coping strategies after an unfortunate experience. The original version of the questionnaire consists of 9 components with 36 materials (self-blame, acceptance, rumination, positive refocusing, refocus on planning, positive reappraisal, putting into perspective, catastrophizing, and other blame). General cognitive styles and especially negative experience of individuals can be assessed by this questionnaire.[1] The range of answering the items is in 5 degrees that change from 1 (never) to 5 (always). Domain scores are between 36 and 180. The creators of questionnaire measured its reliability through Cronbach's alpha (positive strategies [r = 0.98], negative strategies [r = 0.87], and the total questionnaire [r = 0.63]).

In Aminabadi et al. study,[9] this questionnaire was validated for 15–17-year-old students, and only 26 questions and 4 factors remained after it was analyzed (positive thinking, self-blaming and catastrophic thinking, coping and acceptance, and eventually blame other).

The validity and questions for each subscale are shown in [Table 1], [Table 2], [Table 3], [Table 4]. In this study, the form of 26 questions was used. Cronbach's alpha for the total scale was 0.88. Moreover, it was 0.85 for the component of self-blame and catastrophizing, 0.89 for coping and acceptance, 0.88 for positive thinking, and 0.87 for other blame.
Table 1: Material Sub-classes, Final Coefficient, Material components

Click here to view
Table 2: The mean and standard deviation of cognitive emotion regulation components

Click here to view
Table 3: Mean and standard deviation of tendency to addiction factors

Click here to view
Table 4: Pearson correlation coefficient between cognitive emotion regulation and tendency to addiction in adolescents

Click here to view


Children's Behavior

This questionnaire was designed by Wright and its aim is to measure the amount of craving for drugs. It consists of 20 questions that the range of answers was in 7 options (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree). To obtain the overall rating scale of the questionnaire, the scores of all questions were summed. The scores range from 20 to 140 that higher scores indicate more individuals' drug use temptation and vice versa.

The validity and reliability of this test were acceptable. Its reliability was reported 0.95 by the use of Cronbach's alpha coefficient in Chang et al.[10] study. In Torki et al. research, the reliability was 0.86; in this study, it was also 0.86.

Using the questionnaires of this study was as self-report. After measuring and scoring the questions, the data were analyzed. For analyzing the data, multiple descriptive and inferential analyses corresponded to each of the targets were used. For presenting the states of the sample group of the study, table and charts were used in terms of demographic variables. Central tendency and dispersion indexes were applied for presenting the states of variables of the study, and Pearson correlation and regression analysis were used for examining the relationship between variables and their significance. The mentioned analysis was performed by the use of SPSS - Version 21 (IBM Company-USA).


  Results Top


In this part of the study, data analysis of cognitive emotion regulation and tendency to addiction questionnaire is exhausted. In this report, first of all, mean and standard deviation of cognitive emotion regulation and tendency to addiction were checked. The result of the main objectives of the study was examined by the use of Pearson correlation and regression analysis.

As it can be seen in [Table 2], the mean and standard deviation of cognitive emotion regulation for boys are 115.73 and 20 and for girls are 118.67 and 15.26, respectively. The maximum and minimum of all the variables have been specified.

In [Table 3], the mean and standard deviation of tendency to addiction are indicated. As it can be seen in [Table 3], the mean of tendency to addiction among boys is 58.65 and standard deviation is 21.14, and standard deviation and mean among girls are 51.14 and 15.41, respectively. Maximum and minimum are also indicated.

Main hypothesis

There is a relationship between cognitive emotion regulation and tendency to addiction among adolescents of Isfahan.

Regulation

As it was noted in [Table 4], there is a relationship between all the components of cognitive emotion regulation and tendency to addiction among adolescents. This relationship is statistically significant (P < 0.001). Therefore, the main hypothesis of this study was confirmed and it was concluded that tendency to addiction among adolescents decreases by improving cognitive emotion regulation, and multiple regression analysis was used to evaluate.

The correlation between tendency to addiction and different components of cognitive emotion regulation (self-blame and catastrophizing, coping and acceptance, positive thinking, and other blame) being estimated 0.579 (r = 0.579). This correlation is called multiple correlation. Multiple correlation is the relationship between several independent variables and one dependent variable. If this coefficient being squared, it equals to 0.336, and this indicates that 33.6% of variance or individual differences in adolescents' tendency to addiction associate with variance or individual differences in various components of cognitive emotion regulation (self-blame and catastrophizing, coping and acceptance, positive thinking, and other blame). This correlation is statistically significant (P = 0.001). Therefore, 0.01% of the main hypothesis was confirmed.


  Conclusion Top


The main hypothesis of the study was that there is a relationship between cognitive emotion regulation and adolescents' tendency to addiction in Isfahan which was completely approved. The result of this study was the same as the studies by Zahed et al.,[11] Gunnarsson et al.,[12] Fox et al.,[13] and Fox et al.[14] The findings indicated that the level of cognitive emotion regulation with the individuals' tendency to addiction caused by their inability to deal with and manage effectively emotions, especially at the beginning of drug use.[4] These findings are also in line with Goleman's (1995) hypothesis that there is a relationship between low intelligence and emotion regulation of individual with drug abuse. In other words, it can be said that when an individual is placed under pressure of drug use, poor management of emotion increases the risk of drug abuse. Contrary, effective management of emotion decreases the risk of drug abuse. The ability to manage emotion causes the individual to use appropriate coping strategies in the situations that are supposed high risk for drug abuse. Moreover, individuals who have a high positive emotional regulation are more capable to anticipate others' demands. They recognize others' unwanted pressure and control their emotions better, and thereby, they resist more against drug use. On the other hand, the individuals with low positive emotion regulation are generally going to use drug in order to deal with their negative emotions.[14] Regression analysis (multivariable correlation) is considerable at [Table 5].
Table 5: Regression analysis (multivariable correlation)

Click here to view


With the results of this study, it can be stated that one possible reason of individual's using drug is problems and wide shortcomings of the emotions. Emotional disorders are as the basis core of psychopathology in the face of individual's stressful events. Another possible reason is that they wanted to relieve of the annoying and demanding emotional states. In other words, they use drug as a coping strategy to reduce their own problems. Those who are able to regulate their emotions can perform better in social performance, especially in communicate, and they interact constructively with others.

The ability to differentiate and recognize emotions plays a decisive role in the tendency to drug use. Individuals who have been involved in drug use behavior face with difficulties in getting attention to emotional information, understanding emotion correctly, true processing, and optimal management of information in interpersonal relations. These difficulties lead to individual's losing abilities in analyzing, demission on, and choosing the correct behavior in the face of stressful life situations and he/she wants to do maladaptive behavior. On the other hand, according to the results of the study, other blaming and positive thinking have the power of prediction of adolescents' tendency to addiction. As it was shown, other blaming (β = −0.755) and positive thinking (β = 0.255) have the most significant effect on the specification of changes and prediction of the adolescent tendency to addiction. Moreover, other blaming and positive thinking had conversely effect on adolescent's tendency to addiction. Therefore, it can be said that when a teenage blame others for their addiction and the addict's behavior, he/she does not have tendency to this issue as a result. About positive thinking, it can be said that positive people have a clear and exciting picture of their goals and ideal life, and they review it repeatedly in their minds. They intercommunicate with the individuals who draw them to their goals, and they avoid negative people and those who cause them to be anxious. As a result, this could be a strong factor in predicting the tendency to addiction in such individuals.

In general, the results indicated that cognitive emotion regulation has an important role in tendency to drug abuse. These results could have enormous implications on the process of teaching emotion regulation strategies and adjustment of emotional schemas for individuals with drug abuse to manage and control better the emotional experiences of everyday life and excitement being caused by stressful events. It should be said that cognitive emotion regulation strategies being learned in childhood, and they become automatically cognitive style at the end of adolescent period and being stabilized. Therefore, it is recommended that our children should be taught to stop using negative strategies but using positive and adaptive excitement strategies at the early age by parents, and this training being completed in schools through educating emotional regulation skills. This training can affect not only on prevention but also on therapeutic intervention.

One of the limitations of this study was the large number of questions and self-report form of questionnaires. Therefore, it is recommended that these limitations should be considered in future researches. It is also recommended that researches about the reasons of drug tendency in different areas of country (Iran) with considering different cultures in terms of ethnic groups or religious minorities should be done.

Financial support and sponsorship

This study was financially supported by Islamic Azad University of Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.



 
  References Top

1.
Garnefski N, Kraaij V, Spinhoven P. Negative life events, cognitive emotion regulation and emotional problems. Personality and individual differences. 2001;30:1311-27.  Back to cited text no. 1
    
2.
Wright FD. Craving beliefs questionnaire. In: Beck AT, Wright FD, Newman CF, Liese BS, editors. Cognitive Therapy of Substance Abuse. New York: Guilford Press; 2003.  Back to cited text no. 2
    
3.
Gross JJ, Thomson RA. Emotion regulation: Conceptual 26. foundations. In: Gross JJ, editor. Handbook of Emotion Regulation. New York: Guilford Press;2007.  Back to cited text no. 3
    
4.
Parker JD, Taylor RN, Eastabrook JM, Schell SL, Wood LM. Problem gambling in adolescence: Relationshipes with internet misuse gaming abuse and emotional intelligence. Pers Individ Dif 2008;45:174-80.  Back to cited text no. 4
    
5.
Jacobs M, Snow J, Geraci M, Meena Vythilingam M, Blair RJ, Charney DS. Association between level of emotional intelligence and severity of anxiety in generalized social pohobia. J Anxiety Disord 2008;87:9-24.  Back to cited text no. 5
    
6.
Ochsner KN, Gross JJ. The cognitive control of emotion. Trends Cogn Sci 2005;9:242-9.  Back to cited text no. 6
[PUBMED]    
7.
Granefski N, Van Den Kommer T, Kraaij V, Teerds J, Legerstef J, Onstein E. The relationship between cognitive emotion regulation strategies and emotional problems: Comparison between a clinical and non-clinical sample. Eur J Pers 2002;16:403-20.  Back to cited text no. 7
    
8.
Amstadter A. Emotion regulation and anxiety disorders. J Anxiety Disord 2008;22:211-21.  Back to cited text no. 8
[PUBMED]    
9.
Aminabadi Z, Khodapanahi MK, Dehghani M. The mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation in adolescents' perceptions according to their parenting styles and their academic success. J Behav Sci 2011;5:109-17.  Back to cited text no. 9
    
10.
Chang CW, Huang CW, Wu WH, Wang BE, Liu YL, Shen HC, et al. Psychometric properties of the Chinese craving beliefs questionnaire for heroin abusers in methadone treatment. BMC Psychiatry 2011;11:39.  Back to cited text no. 10
[PUBMED]    
11.
Zahed A, Alahqalilu K, Abolghasemi A, Norimani M. The relationship between emotion regulation strategies and interpersonal behavior among drug abusers. J Addict Res 2010;11:99-113.  Back to cited text no. 11
    
12.
Gunnarsson M, Gustavsson JP, Tengström A, Franck J, Fahlke C. Personality traits and their associations with substance use among adolescents. Pers Individ Dif 2008;45:356-60.  Back to cited text no. 12
    
13.
Fox HC, Hong KA, Sinha R. Difficulties in emotion regulation and impulse control in recently abstinent alcoholics compared with social drinkers. Addict Behav 2008;33:388-94.  Back to cited text no. 13
[PUBMED]    
14.
Fox HC, Axelrod SR, Paliwal P, Sleeper J, Sinha R. Difficulties in emotion regulation and impulse control during cocaine abstinence. Drug Alcohol Depend 2007;89:298-301.  Back to cited text no. 14
[PUBMED]    



 
 
    Tables

  [Table 1], [Table 2], [Table 3], [Table 4], [Table 5]


This article has been cited by
1 Attachment and behavioral addictions in adolescents: The mediating and moderating role of coping strategies
Ana Estevez,Paula Jauregui,Hibai Lopez-Gonzalez
Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. 2019;
[Pubmed] | [DOI]



 

Top
 
 
  Search
 
Similar in PUBMED
   Search Pubmed for
   Search in Google Scholar for
 Related articles
Access Statistics
Email Alert *
Add to My List *
* Registration required (free)

 
  In this article
Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Results
Conclusion
References
Article Tables

 Article Access Statistics
    Viewed4634    
    Printed323    
    Emailed0    
    PDF Downloaded433    
    Comments [Add]    
    Cited by others 1    

Recommend this journal


[TAG2]
[TAG3]
[TAG4]