Psychosocial Factors Predict the Level of Substance Craving of People with Drug Addiction: A Machine Learning Approach

This study aimed to explore which factors had a greater impact on substance craving in people with substance use and the direction of the impact. A total of 895 male substance users completed questionnaires regarding substance craving, psychological security, positive psychological capital, interpersonal trust, alexithymia, impulsivity, parental conflict, aggression behavior, life events, family intimacy, and deviant peers. Calculating the factor importance by gradient boosting method (GBM), found that the psychosocial factors that had a greater impact on substance craving were, in order, life events, aggression behavior, positive psychological capital, interpersonal trust, psychological security, impulsivity, alexithymia, family intimacy, parental conflict, and deviant peers. Correlation analysis showed that life events, positive psychological capital, interpersonal trust, psychological security, and family intimacy negatively predicted substance craving, while aggression behavior, impulsivity, alexithymia, parental conflict, and deviant peers positively predicted substance cravings. These findings have important implications for the prevention and intervention of substance craving behavior among substance users.