Types of Conflict and Motivational Needs of Young Adults with and without Substance Use Disorder: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Conflicts play a vital role in substance misuse for individuals, on the other hand motivational needs that lead to the substance taking behaviour or restraining from the same are also appropriate for consideration in order to further contribute in planning holistic family-based interventions for relapse prevention.  There are very few studies on the motivational needs that are the driving force behind the misuse and the same could help with maintaining relapse. Our study focuses on the finding out types of conflicts and motivational needs in young adults with and without substance use. Method: A total of 100 participants were enrolled for the study, of which 50 individuals had substance use disorder, and 50 individuals contributed as controls. SACKS sentence completion and Motivational Questionnaire (Junker 2001) were used for collecting data, t-test was used to compare the difference between the type of conflicts and motivational needs of the two groups. Results: There were more type of conflicts in the substance use group (t= 27.631, p=0.001). Need for power was higher in substance use group and need for achievement was higher in control group. Conclusion: There are higher conflicts in individuals with substance use disorder with higher need for power, which could be expressed as a way of exhibiting rebellion and personal power needs with less motivation to achieve, which could also be a contributing factor in repeated relapse.