Differences in self-esteem and personality profile of recovering drug addicts, residents of a TC drug rehabilitation program and government drug treatment program

• Main Author: Mohamed, Mahmood Nazar
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: BF Psychology
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/309/1/Differences_in_self-esteem.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/309/
• Institution: Universiti Utara Malaysia

The purpose of this paper is to compare the self-esteem and personality profile of recovering drug addicts and residents who are still in treatment. Two types of treatment facilities are involved, that is the Serenti government drug rehabilitation center and Pengasih House, an NG0 that employed therapeutic community (TC) approach to rehabilitate persons addicted to drugs. Data were collected from the recovering drug addicts of the house and residents from government treatment programs. Respondents were required to answer a battery of test consisting of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory, the 16PF and questions related to demo graphical and personal information. This study found that the level of self esteem among the recovering drug addicts who have been drug free for more than 2 years differ significantly than those who are still in the program. However, there is no significant difference in the personality factors between the two groups. This support the hypothesis that the personality of drug addicts remain fairly stable over time and that it is one of the factor that promote relapse among recovering drug users even after a long period of abstinence.