Impact of individualism-collectivism on family and psychological factors for drug use

Background/Objectives: Little empirical research has studied cultural factors and their relations to personal, family and psychological factors for drug use.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 220 male and 240 female middle-school students in an area of China, where drug use was a serious problem. The individualism-collectivism interpersonal assessment inventory (ICIAI) was used to measure cultural norms and values in the context of three social groups: family members, close friends, and classmates.

Results: Compared to boys, girls reported higher levels of the three ICIAI subscales, self-esteem, parent monitoring, and family support, but lower levels of favorite attitudes to drug use, ability to communicate with parents about drug use. Multiple linear regression analyses indicated that, in boys, only the family ICIAI scale was positively associated with self-efficacy of drug-use avoidance. In girls, the family ICIAI was positively associated with parent monitoring, family support and self-efficacy of drug-use avoidance, but negatively associated with attitudes to drug use, and ability to communicate with parents about drug use. The friend ICIAI was negatively associated with parent monitoring, family support, attitudes to drug use, and self-efficacy of drug-use avoidance. The classmate ICIAI was positively associated with parent monitoring, family support, peer network size, but negatively associated with attitudes towards drug use, and ability to communicate with parents about drug use among girls.

Conclusion: Findings demonstrate that the Chinese collectivist culture influences family and psychological factors of drug use and design of drug use intervention programs should take the collectivist culture into consideration.