The Role of Social Support and Early Engagement in Addiction Treatment
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Abstract
This mixed method thesis examined the relationship between social support and early engagement in residential addiction treatment. Study 1 involved a secondary data analysis of a prospective cohort of clients entering a residential addiction treatment program. The multivariate analyses tested associations between client perceived social support and early engagement and retention in treatment. The study revealed that high level of social support from family was positively correlated with treatment participation. Study 2 involved in-depth qualitative semi-structured interviews with clients (different from those participating in Study 1) attending the same addiction treatment program, using a grounded theory approach. The theory generated from this study described how the treatment centre functioned as a gatekeeper to control clients’ access to social supports. Taken together, findings suggest the importance of treatment process components that use social supports to promote early engagement in addiction treatment. Implications for research and practice are provided.