Efficiency of Preventing Short Message Service on Students Attitudes and Self-Efficiency towards Drug Abuse

Subject Areas : Infomartion Technology

Daruosh Jalali ¹ ( )

Received: 2011-04-30 Accepted : 2011-06-18 Published : 2011-04-01

Keywords: Attitude, Drug Abuse, Preventive Methods, Self-efficiency, SMS, Informative Pamphlet,

Abstract :

The aim of the study was to compare the efficiency of preventing short message service (SMS) method with the teaching method using informative pamphlet on high school students' attitude and self-efficiency towards drug abuse. The research was a semi- experimental one which was done by pretest – posttest with three months follow up with control group. Statistical population included 22000 male, high- school students of Shar-e-Kord in 2010. The sample consisted of 138 students who were randomly selected using multi- stage sampling, and divided into three groups (two experimental groups and one control groups). Both experimental and control groups completed the Attitude Toward Drug Abuse Inventory (Ghorbani, 2001) and Self - Efficiency Inventory (Scheerer et al., 1998) during pretest, posttest and follow up phases. While the first experimental group received preventive short messages for 45 days, the second experimental group received information about disadvantages of drug abuse by informative pamphlet in 45 days. The results of the analysis of MANCOVA revealed that the preventive methods on changing attitude and improving self- efficiency about drug abuse were effective (P > 0/05). However the effect of SMS method was more than that of the pamphlet method. The follow-up results indicated that the effect of SMS method was permanent, while the effect of pamphlet method was not (P > 0/05).