Published Paper Details:

The aim of the present study is to find out the variance explained by locus of control with respect to self- esteem among young drug abusers and non abusers. Youth is the most vulnerable section of the society that is at higher risk of becoming drug addictive. It is a time period in which they are at delicate age of their life and show higher risk taking behavior. Person with high self-esteem are more likely to have internal locus of control, while person with low self-esteem are more likely to have external locus of control and are more prone to become drug abusers. Adolescence make use of drugs to deal with stress, peer pressure, and emotional distress, if this behavior is not learned during adolescence due to infrequent exposure to risk, there may be a good chance that drugs will not be used later in life to handle distress. Self-esteem as a personality variable refers to the degree to which a person values and accepts him- or herself. Results of regression analysis show that external locus of control explains 7.90% variance among drug abusers. It can be said that self esteem among abusers can be improvised by enhancing their external locus of control.