The Relationship between Coping Strategies and Perceived Stress with Psychological Well-being among Children of Drug-addicted Parents

The current research mainly intends to investigate the relationship between coping strategies and perceived stress with the psychological well-being of children of addicts. The research is descriptive and correlational. The statistical population is composed of the children from drug abusers referring to outpatient treatment centers in Ardebil city. Using a multi-stage cluster method, 60 children were selected as the sample, and underwent assessment using psychological well-being questionnaire, coping style questionnaire, and Perceived Stress Scale. The research data were analyzed using SPSS software and using Pearson correlation and multiple regression methods. The results showed that the there is a positive and significant relationship between problem-oriented strategy (r=0.61) and avoidance strategy (r =0.38) with psychological well-being of children of addicts. There was also a significant relationship between positive perceived stress (r=0.39) and negative perceived stress (r=-35) with psychological well-being. In addition, coping strategies and perceived stress have a 60-percent ability to predict psychological well-being of the children from addicted parents. As a result, it could be stated that the variables namely coping strategies and perceived stress have greater ability to predict psychological well-being of the children of addicts, and require some programs for adjustment and proper training of these variables. Introduction Drug dependence and abuse is one of the most important problems of our time which has been widespread throughout the world and every day the number of victims is increasing. The relevant unpleasant consequences are one of the most important concerns of the communities and one of the worst social problems, and it has long preoccupied the mind of mental health specialists, and is considered to be one of the major issues in relation to health of juveniles and youth and especially the children of the addicted people. Addiction is a biological-mental-social disease and many factors affect the people’s tendency toward drug abuse. These factors interact with each other and then leading to drug abuse and drug dependence because they play an intertwined role in the creation of addiction. Addiction is an individual disorder which afflicts the body, thinking, emotions and feelings, values, personal, social, family, and spiritual relationships (Rostami, 2009). Addiction not only creates some problems for the addict but also leads to a lot of problems and difficulties for the family, wife and especially children, and it is highly likely that they get more and more afflicted with mental health problems, and experience severe damages in terms of life quality and mental well-being be (Sadeghi, 2009). Psychological well-being can be defined as the ability to find all potential talents of people. People with high psychological well-being experience positive emotions, and have a positive assessment of the events taking place around them, while those with a low sense of psychological well-being evaluate their position and incidents in life as unpleasant, and experience more negative emotions such as anxiety, depression, anger (Sadeghi, 2009). Psychological well-being has some components including: 1-autonomy (feeling of competence and the ability to manage one's environment, etc.); 2personal growth (continuous development, etc.); 3positive relationships with others (warm relations, etc.); 4purpose in life (being purposeful in life, etc.); 5-Self-acceptance (having a positive attitude towards themselves and others); and 6control of the environment (the ability to choose and create a suitable environment, etc.). Psychological well-being requires an understanding of the existential challenges of life. Approach to psychological well-being examines growth and development seen in the existential challenges of life and focuses heavily on human development (Sadeghi, 2009). The findings of a research carried out by Sabour (2010) showed that children of people with substance abuse, compared to children of normal people, received lower scores on psychological well-being. Also Sezavar (2010) showed that the addicts had a lower level of the psychological well-being and social support than ordinary people. Many factors affect psychological individual well-being. One of these factors is stress. Stress can influence personal and social life and individual achievement. The importance of this issue is due to the fact that if we have stressed people, they cannot properly carry out their responsibilities, and they would be weak in the face of different life pressures. J. Curr. Res. Sci. Vol., S (2), 923-928, 2016 924 In addition, they cannot move toward their own goal so seriously and will feel disappointment in face of any obstacle, and perceived stress is referred to as individuals’ overall interpretation and understanding of the impact of stressors. Different people have different perceptions and interpretations of different stressors. There are a variety of factors that can play effective roles in the creation of perceived stress and individual interpretation of the stress (Zibaei et al., 2012). One of the strategies that affects stress outcomes is coping strategies by an informed and logical method. Coping strategies are the methods whose main intention is to combat stress source (Sadok & Sadok, 2010; translated by Rezaei, 2011). There are two main approaches for coping processes. One of these approaches focuses on man’s ability to cope with and respond to the stressors. This approach seeks to answer the question whether the person can approach the problem and inactively resolve or avoid it or not. The approach mainly focuses on the control of stress-related emotions. The second approach attempts to find out, in the face of a stressful event, whether individual uses cognitive techniques or behavioral methods? By blending these two approaches, a more coherent concept can be achieved, i.e. it is possible to consider individual’s tendency toward stressors, and to divide coping into two areas including avoiding and orientation coping (Mu & Schafer, 1993). In addition, according to Lazarus, in problem-oriented coping, individual acts directly to change stressful factors. However, in emotion-focused coping, man’s attention is more directed toward change in relevant emotions. In the emotion-focused coping, people try to control their emotions (Bayrami et al., 2012). The results of the research conducted by Clarke et al (2013) showed that there is a significant relationship between coping styles and emotional states with drug and alcohol abuse. So, awareness of emotional states is widely associated with alcoholism and drug use through facilitating avoidance coping. In addition, the research by Simon and Cavay (2007) showed that the type of coping strategies used is predictor of substance abuse in the future. Given the above-mentioned exploitations, the current research examined the relationship between coping strategies and perceived stress and psychological well-being of children of the addicts. Methodology The research is descriptive and correlational. The statistical population is composed of children of drug abusers referring to outpatient treatment centers in Ardebil city. Using a multi-stage cluster method, 60 children were selected as the sample. After obtaining the necessary permits and required coordination, the researchers referred to addiction treatment centers and outpatient treatment centers in Ardabil city. To select the statistical sample, with the permission of parents and receiving written consent, the children were invited to participate in the study. Then the objectives of the study were explained to them, and they entered. The research data were analyzed using SPSS software and using Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression. Data collection tools included the following questionnaires: Reef Psychological well-being questionnaire The questionnaire contains 54 questions which measures six scales including self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purposeful life and personal growth. For each subscale, nine 5-option questions are developed using Likert spectrum. Reef & Singer (1998) performed psychological well-being questionnaire on 1108 people of aged 25 and over. The factor analysis confirmed this six-dimensional questionnaire. The reliability coefficients of the psychological well-being questionnaire in the current research were calculated by Cronbach's alpha and internal consistency coefficient of 0.91. The internal consistency coefficient of the questionnaire was also calculated based on the subscales, as follows: independence (0.75), dominance on environment (0.75), personal development (0.61), positive relationships with others (0.71), purposefulness in life (0.72) and self-acceptance (0.78) (Reef & Singer, 1998). The coefficient of reliability obtained in the research performed by Zanjani Tabasi by internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) for the psychological well-being test was 0.94, and for the sub-tests was 0.63 to 0.89, respectively. The correlation coefficient based on the retest for the total test was 0.76, and for the total test was 0.67 to 0.73 (Zanjani Tabasi, 2004). The validity of the resulting construct based on the correlation method between the total score and subscales for life satisfaction was 0.51, for happiness was 0.66, for spirituality was 0.66, for positive relationships with others was 0.48, and for individual growth and development was 0.46 which all are significant (Zanjani Tabasi, 2004). In a study in which internal consistency was used, the validity of different dimensions of Reef test was 0.65 to 0.70 (Sezavar, 2010). Perceived Stress Scale This scale was developed by Cohen et al (1983) and is used to measure perceived stress in the past month. The scale has 14 items, and each item is answered on a five-point Like