Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2006 Feb;3(1):25-34.
doi: 10.1037/1541-1559.3.1.0.

Enhancing Substance Abuse Treatment Engagement in Incarcerated Adolescents

L A R Stein  1 , Peter M Monti, Suzanne M Colby, Nancy P Barnett, Charles Golembeske, Rebecca Lebeau-Craven, Robert Miranda
Affiliations

Enhancing Substance Abuse Treatment Engagement in Incarcerated Adolescents

L A R Stein et al. Psychol Serv. 2006 Feb.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether motivational interviewing (MI), compared with an attention control condition (relaxation training [RT]) enhances substance abuse treatment engagement in incarcerated adolescents. At the start of incarceration, adolescents were randomly assigned to individually administered MI or RT. Subsequently, therapists and adolescents (N = 130) rated degree of adolescent participation in the facility's standard care group-based treatments targeting crime and substance use. All adolescents received the facility standard care treatment after their individual MI or RT session. MI statistically significantly mitigated negative substance abuse treatment engagement. Other indicators of treatment engagement were in the expected direction; however, effect sizes were small and nonsignificant. These findings are significant, given concerns regarding the deleterious effects of treating delinquent adolescents in groups and the potential for adolescents to reinforce each other's negative behavior, which in turn may lead to escalated substance use and other delinquent behaviors after release.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Amrhein PC, Miller WR, Yahne CE, Palmer M, Fulcher L. Client commitment language during motivational interviewing predicts drug use outcomes. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 2003;71:862–878. - PubMed
    1. Aubrey L. Motivational interviewing with adolescents presenting for outpatient substance abuse treatment (Doctoral dissertation, University of New Mexico, 1998) Dissertation Abstracts International. 1998;59(3B):1357.
    1. Bem D. Self-perception theory. In: Berkowitz L, editor. Advances in experimental social psychology. Vol. 6. Academic Press; New York: 1972. pp. 1–62.
    1. Bien TH, Miller WR, Boroughs JM. Motivational interviewing with alcohol outpatients. Behavioral and Cognitive Psychotherapy. 1993;21:347–356.
    1. Borenstein M, Rothstein H, Cohen J. Power and precision. Biostat; Teaneck, NJ: 2000. Version 2.0.

LinkOut - more resources