الأبعاد الشخصية لمدني المخدرات وعلاقتها ببعض المتغيرات الأسرية لديهم بالمجتمع العماني

Abstract

Countries of the world have agreed that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which include, among others, achievement of quality health and wellbeing and quality education by all citizens of the world by the year 2015. However, most countries, including Oman, are unlikely to achieve these goals. One of the greatest challenges is the epidemic of drug addiction which is spreading so fast among the youth, leading to all sorts of social ills. Professional literature has demonstrated the centrality of family and personal variables in the onset and maintenance of addictive behaviors. The purpose of the present study was to explore the lived experiences of drug addicts in Oman to find out how their addiction affects them and their family members. It specifically examined how personality dimensions of the drug addicts are connected with selected family variables in the Omani society. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches. In the qualitative part, the researcher employed the case study approach. Seven families of drug addicts were observed and interviewed over a period that lasted 6 months. Findings showed a reciprocal relationship between addictive behaviors and family relationships: the onset addiction is apparently related to the nature of relations among family members on the one hand, while the addiction habit of a family member introduces new dynamics in the interactions among family members. For the quantitative part, data were collected from a sample of 131 male, low qualified drug addicts aged between 15 and 55 who are currently being rehabilitated in a specialized hospital in the Muscat Governorate. Three data collection tools were used, namely (a) A questionnaire of the subjects’ socio-economic data (developed by the researcher); (b) Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) (For adults); and (c) Moos’s Family Environment Scale. Statistical analysis using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) found that the neurotic personality dimension had the highest effect on the addicts’ behavior (mean=.76; SD= 1.48), while the psychotic dimension had the least effect (Mean=.30; SD= .120). As for the family variables, the highest predictor was ‘Family Organization’ (Mean=7.06; SD=3.0), and the lowest was the ‘Freedom of expressing feelings’ (Mean=2.38; SD=1.47). While these findings highlight the harmful effects of addiction on family stability, they point to the need to empower families and other social institutions as one of the most potent ways of dealing with the epidemic of drug addiction.