Attitudes towards substance addiction: A study of Turkish University students

Substance addiction has become one of the important issues in the world. The studies concerning substance use reveal the extent of the problem. According to the results of such studies, the number of the people using illicit drugs has increased profoundly in recent years. In this study, it was tried to find out how common substance use among Turkish university students. Moreover, it was aimed to determine the students’ attitudes towards addicts. In order to measure the students’ attitudes towards addicts, the revised version of “Attitude Scale towards Individuals with Drug Abuse Problems” developed by Tansel (2006) was used. Totally 572 university students responded the survey.The results showed that nicotine and alcohol were the substances most frequently used by the students. Besides, it was seen that university students’ attitudes towards addicts were reasonably negative. What is more, it was determined in the study that, the students’ gender, faculty that they attended, students class level, their parents educational backgrounds, students’ smoking and drinking habits were the factors influencing the students’ attitudes towards addicts. Key words: Substance use, drug, addiction, university students, attitude.