Comparison of the Effectiveness of the Psychological Training Package of Substance Use Prevention and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on the Attitude toward Substance Use in Students Prone to Substance Use

Objective: This research was conducted to compare the effectiveness of the psychological training package of substance use prevention and cognitive-behavioral therapy on the attitude toward substance use in students prone to substance use. Method: The present research was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest and follow-up design with a control group. Among the male students prone to substance use in the upper secondary level of the city of Isfahan in 2019, 45 students were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling method and assigned into three groups of 15 people. The research tool was the attitude toward substance use questionnaire. The first experimental group underwent 8 sessions of the psychological training of substance use prevention, and the second experimental group underwent 8 sessions of cognitive-behavioral therapy, and the control group did not receive any treatments. Data were analyzed by the repeated-measures analysis of variance. Results: The results showed that the effects of both methods were significant in correcting the attitude toward substances in students prone to substance use, and the psychological training of substance use prevention was more effective than the cognitive-behavioral treatment in the follow-up phase. Conclusion: Experts can benefit from the psychological training package of substance use prevention in order to correct the attitudes of students prone to substance use.