A Causal Factors of Behavior Risk Related to Substance abuse of Youths in Nonthaburi Province

Abstract

        This research article aims to test the congruence of causal factors of behavior risk related to substance abuse of youths in Nonthaburi province through developed empirical data, and to study influence of causal factors of behavior risk related to substance abuse of youths in Nonthaburi province. The study was quantitative research. The data collected by questionnaires from 120 respondents who youths aged 7-24 years old in Nonthaburi province. The research sampling was convenience sampling. The index of item-objective congruence (IOC) was 0.783 and reliability value was 0.884. The result of study reveals that (1) the causal factors developed by the researcher was congruent with the empirical data c²= 22.714, df = 27, c²/df = 0.841, P-value = 0.065, RMSEA = 0.014, GFI = 0.999, AGFI = 0.993; showed that all of the statistical value passed the criteria of the model congruence index of the structural equation modeling and the result of R² = 0.583 mean that all of variables been able to predicted the variance of behavior risk related to substance abuse of youths at 58.30 percentages. And (2) the latent variable which negative direct influence to behavior risk related to substance abuse of youths in Nonthaburi province was environment factors at significant level of 0.001 with the coefficient influence at -0.821 and found that the environment factor had a positive indirect influence passed the latent variable which was knowledge about substance abuse factor at significant statistical of 0.001 level with at 0.764 of the influence coefficients. Meanwhile, the latent variable was the knowledge about substance abuse factor had significantly negative direct influence to the behavior risk related to substance abuse of youths in Nonthaburi province at 0.001 of statistical level with the coefficient influence at -0.463.