Examining the relationship between self-control and adolescent TC treatment completion

Abstract

A type of treatment intervention that is widely regarded in terms of treating adolescents with issues of substance use is the therapeutic community (TC). Despite their effectiveness, empirical studies of drug treatment are mostly atheoretical, even though treatment programming is based on theory. In this study, an attempt was made to apply concepts related to a Gottfredson and Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime to predict treatment completion. Using data collected as part of the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcomes Studies Adolescents (DATOS-A), a multisite prospective study of adolescent drug abuse treatment effectiveness, this study examined whether characteristics associated with low self-control predicted treatment completion. The primary finding was that motivation for treatment was significantly related to treatment completion. Although the characteristics associated with low self-control did not predict treatment completion in the hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) models that included the demographics and risk and protective factors, there were several significant bivariate relationships between pretreatment behaviors and the characteristics associated with low self-control. Because of these relationships, it is important that TC practitioners are aware of how these characteristics might interplay with treatment completion and how TC strategies may help the adolescent to overcome them.