The role of personality & positive outlook in drug seeking behaviour among female youth in cure & care rehabilitation centre

Drug abuse among female in Malaysia is an emerging trend which warrants investigation on this issue. There are insufficient local studies exploring the criminogenic factors and motivations among female drug abuser, hence hinder the effectiveness of proposed treatment and preventive programs. This study aims to investigate the influence of personality and positive outlook towards substance abuse in young female utilizing the Alternative Five Factor Model (AFFM) constituting of five personality traits; Activity (Act), Sociability (Sy), Aggresiveness-Hostility (Agg-Host), Impulsive Sensation Seeking (ImpSS), and Neuroticism-Anxiety (N-Anx).

This was a cross-sectional study using quantitative method for data collection. A guided self-administered Malay version of Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire50-Cross Cultural Questionnaire (ZKPQ-50-CC) and Positive Outlook-Individual Protective Factors Index were used as the research instruments. A total of 131 female respondents were recruited from Cure & Care Rehabilitation Centre (n = 31) and secondary schools (n = 100) as the study and comparison control group.

Results showed that there is significant difference in between groups in Agg-Host, ImpSS and N-Anx personality traits with higher mean scores were observed in study group. Significantly, participants’ preference to drug types, especially opiate is influenced by Act personality trait.

These findings further suggested that phycological constructs such as personality and individual's positive outlook can be used as indicators for early detection, prevention and personalized intervention for at-risk youth or youth with addiction problem.