Abstract
The relationship between identity and drug use within traveller and settled people was investigated (N= 104), males (n= 65) and females (n=40). Participants were required to take part in a structured interview based on the Anderson drug and identity instrument and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale. Identification, marginalisation, lost control in defining identity, attitudes to travellers, ego identity discomfort before drug use and ego identity discomfort during the early days of drug use (DVs) were all measured within the traveller and settled community groups (IVs). Five of the proposed hypotheses were found to be significant. Those were, there will be a significant difference between the traveller and settled communities with regards to their opinions on the attitudes of mainstream society towards the traveller culture and to the extent to which this effects the formation of positive traveller identities (F=1.99), df= 9.076, p< 0.05), there will be a significant relationship between lost control in defining identity before drug use and identification with the drug culture (F (1.94) = 15.797, p< 0.05), there will be a significant difference between ego identity before drug use and during the early days of drug use (Greenhouse Geisser f(1.96)= 5.489, p< 0.005), there will be a significant relationship between the change in ego identity from before drug use to the early days of drug use and the type of community (Greenhouse Geisser f(1.96)= 5.439, p< 0.005) and there will be a significant relationship between the change in ego identity from before drug use to the early days of drug use and gender (Greenhouse Geisser f(1.96)= 5.996, p<0.005). Further hypothesis failed to find significance.
