Background and Objectives: Understanding university students' psychological vulnerabilities, particularly familial emotions and self-regulation, is critical for informing addiction prevention. The present research aimed to ascertain the predictive power of familial emotional climate, difficulties in emotion regulation, and distress tolerance concerning the likelihood of addiction among university students.
Materials and Methods: Employing a descriptive, correlational design, this research investigated a sample of 168 students from Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz (Iran), selected via convenience sampling. Data on addiction potential, family emotional climate, emotion regulation difficulties, and distress tolerance were gathered using established scales. Subsequent analysis involved descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and stepwise regression to explore the relationships between these variables within the university student population.
Results: This study examined the relationships between familial emotional climate, difficulties in emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and addiction propensity among university students. Significant correlations were observed: a negative association between familial emotional climate and addiction propensity (r=−0.59, P<0.001), a positive association between difficulties in emotion regulation and addiction propensity (r=0.50, P<0.001), and a negative association between distress tolerance and addiction propensity (r=−0.49, P<0.001). Stepwise regression analysis revealed that familial emotional climate explained 34% of the variance in addiction propensity. The addition of difficulties in emotion regulation increased the explained variance to 47%, and the subsequent inclusion of distress tolerance further accounted for 49% of the variance.
Conclusion: This study robustly demonstrates that familial emotional climate, emotion regulation difficulties, and distress tolerance significantly predict addiction propensity in university students. These findings emphasize the necessity of incorporating family dynamics and emotional processing into targeted prevention and intervention strategies.
Article Type:
Research Article |
Subject:
Substance abuse, dependence, addiction Received: 2025/05/20 | Accepted: 2025/07/7 | Published: 2025/07/19