Peer Influences: Risk Factors to Voluntary and Non-Voluntary Clients to Remain Abstinence

Abstract

Drug cases among teenagers are on the rise from year to year. Their involvement is said to be due to many risk factors, and one of them is the risk factor of peer influences. Many efforts were implemented by the government and authorities to treat the issues of drug abusers, including providing treatment and rehabilitation services. However, the tendency to remain abstinent may be different based on the risk factors, types of clients, and conditions of the clients. Therefore, this paper is undertaken to identify the comparison in peer influence risk factors between four groups which are voluntary clients, non-voluntary clients, clients who underwent the treatment at the center, and clients after undergoing the treatment at the center in the tendency to remain abstinence. Besides, this paper is undertaken to explore the risk factor of peer influences to relapse in drug problems. A comparison study with a mixed-method design involving qualitative and quantitative methods has been adopted in this study. The study participants were recruited based on purposive sampling technique and 24 private treatment centers were involved in this study. A mixed triangulation method was implemented for data collection of quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data were collected using structured questionnaires and the Stage of Change Scale (SoCS) while qualitative data were collected through interviews and using semi-structured questionnaires. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics to summarize and describe the study’s findings. T-test was conducted to identify the differences of viewpoints between voluntary and non-voluntary clients and meanwhile, the qualitative data were analyzed by theme. Four hypotheses were tested and hypothesis 1 was accepted. The finding from the hypothesis 1 revealed that there are significant differences for peer influences risk factors based on non-voluntary and voluntary clients who are still undergoing treatment at the center. Non-voluntary clients, who are still undergoing treatment are reported more affected by the risk of peer influences to remain abstinent than voluntary clients. Meanwhile, the findings from the interview revealed that peer influence factors became a motivator for relapse in drug issues among voluntary clients, non-voluntary clients, clients who are still undergoing treatment at the center, and clients after undergoing the treatment at the center. Hence, it showed that peer influence was a significant risk factor for voluntary and non-voluntary clients to remain abstinent and relapse in drug issues. The further researchers proposed the study on the develops support module for parents in managing children who are involved in drug abuse so that they can remain abstinent.