The impact of perceived social support on adolescent substance use in Iran: The mediating roles of self-control and boredom proneness

The study aimed to investigate the effect of perceived social support on adolescent substance use with the mediating role of self-control and boredom in Iran. The population of the study consisted of all adolescent students of high school in Zahedan city located in southeastern of Iran, in 2025. A total of 320 adolescent students were selected as sample using multi-stage cluster sampling and were studied through questionnaires of tendency to substance use, self-control, perceived social support, and the multidimensional scale of boredom. Pearson correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data using SPSS and Smart-PLS software. The findings indicated that perceived social support had a significant negative impact on substance use in adolescents, perceived social support had a significant negative impact on substance use in adolescents with the mediating role of self-control, and perceived social support had a significant negative impact on substance use in adolescents with the mediating role of boredom. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that perceived social support affects the lack of tendency in adolescents to substance use by increasing self-control and reducing boredom.