Objectives & Significance

1） to examine young heroin abusers’ reasons for treatment and to develop an instrument to assess such reasons；

2） to study young heroin abusers’ fears related to treatment and to develop an instrument to assess such fears；

3） to understand young heroin abusers’ expectations on treatment and their confidence in fulfilling the expectations；

4） to identify young heroin abusers’ knowledge about treatment；

5） to understand the previous treatment experiences of young heroin abusers；

6） to understand the psychological well-being of young heroin abusers；

7） to examine the differences about the reasons for treatment，treatment fears，expectations on treatment and confidence in fulfilling the expectations，knowledge about treatment，previous treatment experience and psychological well-being between new comers and repeaters；

8） to examine the inter-relationships amongst reasons，fears，expectation and confidence in treatment，knowledge about treatment and previous treatment experience；and

9） to study the relationships among the psychological well-being of the young addicts and their reasons，fears，expectations and confidence in treatment，knowledge about treatment and previous treatment experience.

The present study has direct relevance to benefit both the drug abusers and the drug rehabilitation services. As indicated，no syste-matic attempt has been made to study the help-seeking characteristics of young drug abusers. Local studies only provide a general profile of young drug abusers which has little implication in improving the drug rehabilitation service，especially in a changing society（e.g.，Narcotics Division，1988，1991，1993，1995）.Therefore，the data arising from the study can enable the pro