The Effectiveness of Watching Movies Focusing on Drug Abuse along with Group Discussions on Assertiveness, Self-control, and Attitude toward Addiction

Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of watching movies focusing on drug abuse along with a group discussion on assertiveness, self-control, and attitude toward addiction. Method: The current research was of a semi-experimental type with a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population included all young boys of Gonabad city in 2019. Among them, 30 people were selected by the convenient sampling method and randomly divided into two experimental (N=15) and control (N=15) groups. The participants of both groups completed the self-control, attitudes toward addiction, and assertiveness questionnaires in the pretest and posttest. The intervention of movies focusing on drug abuse along with group discussion was implemented on the experimental group in eight 120-minute sessions. Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance. Results: The results showed that the intervention of movies focusing on drug abuse along with group discussion was effective on attitude change and assertiveness (assertive expression and assertive rejection) of young boys toward addiction, but it had no significant effect on self-control and assertive request of these individuals. Conclusion: Experts in the field of addiction prevention should keep in mind that movies are more welcomed than documentaries and cartoons and are a more suitable tool for addiction prevention, and counselors and psychologists can use this method to prevent youth addiction.