Effect of Gender, Parental Support an Treatment Type on the Adolescent's Successful Completion of Substance Abuse Outpatient Treatment Program

알코올과 마약남용 청소년을 위한 외래치료의 결과에 성별, 부모의 참여정도, 치료종류가 미치는 영향에 대한 연구

This study examined the effects of gender, parental support and treatment type on the treatment outcome of adolescent substance abusers. Outcome variable was the successful graduation (or drop) from an Intensive Adolescent Outpatient Program. Adolescents with their parents' support were treated in one of three treatment models (2-weeks Inpatient plus 6 week Intensive Croup-Oriented Outpatient, 8-weeks Intensive Croup-Oriented Outpatient, and 8-weeks Individual-Family Therapy) within a private hospital-affiliated treatment center by managed care practice allowing their own choice (non-random natural assignments). Several hypotheses were tested for main effects by the Log-Linear Analyses for a multi-dimensional contingency table with 440 adolescents (284 boys and 156 girls treated during 1992-l997) from middle-class families with private health insurances. The following results were found. Odds of graduating versus dropping out of the treatment program among : (1) girls were 1.7 times higher than those among boys; (2) adolescents with two-parent were 2.2 times higher than those among adolescents with one-parent ; (3) adolescents with Inpatient plus Outpatient was 1.7 times higher than that of those with Outpatient; (4) adolescents with Individual-Family Therapy was 2.3 times higher than that of those with Outpatient Model. There was no statistically significant outcome difference between the Individual-Family Therapy and the Inpatient plus Outpatient. Implications from the results were discussed. Suggestions were made to improve the treatment components in the areas of gender sensitivity, securing more parental support, alternatives for separation from peer group and integrating new peer groups, and flexibility for the unique needs of individual family. Also, some research questions for future studies were suggested.