Addiction and Psychological Distress among University Students in Lebanon: The Moderating Effect of Gender - Abstract
Introduction: Psychological distress and addictive behaviors are both common in Lebanon. Although girls are more subject to distress, boys are known to be more prone to addictive behaviors. The objective of the article was to assess the relationship between psychological distress and addictive behaviors, looking particularly at differences between boys and girls among university students.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among university students from all universities in Lebanon. Addiction to alcohol, cigarettes, and tranquilizers were evaluated according to the ASSIST total scale and subscales, while waterpipe dependence, cigarette dependence and psychological distress were measured using the Lebanese Waterpipe Dependence Scale (LWDS11), Young Adult Cigarette Dependence (YACD) scale and the Beirut Distress Scale (BDS22), respectively. The moderating effect of gender was particularly analyzed.
Results: While boys were statistically more likely than girls to present substance addiction and dependence (p<0.001), a higher psychological distress was associated with higher risk to present these disorders (p<0.001), among both boys and girls and in both bivariate and multivariate analyses. Sex was not considered to be a moderator of the association between psychological distress and addiction. One exception was waterpipe dependence that was not associated with psychological distress (p>0.05) in multivariate analysis.
Conclusion: University students of both sexes with psychological distress should be considered a high risk group for addiction and dependence; public health efforts should be particularly directed towards this subgroup to decrease their health risk behaviors and prevent further deleterious consequences.