Correlates of therapeutic involvement among adolescents in residential drug treatment.

The current study addresses the critical need for research on the therapeutic involvement among adolescent substance users in treatment. Although therapeutic involvement (TI) and the services that clients receive during treatment are among the best predictors of treatment retention and through retention associated with better posttreatment outcomes, there are relatively few empirical studies of therapeutic involvement among adolescents in drug treatment. Using data on N=185 adolescent clients in five adolescent residential drug-treatment programs in New Jersey, factor analyses used maximum likelihood extraction and oblique rotation. Pearson's correlation coefficients and multivariate linear regression were used to explore the utility of using existing measures of TI developed on adult populations to examine the correlates of therapeutic involvement among adolescents. The majority of subjects (85%) were between 16 and 18 years of age, with an average age of 17 years. Seventy-nine percent were male, 20% were Hispanic, 36% were African-American, and 46% were Caucasian. Working alliance, self-esteem, spirituality, deviance, and substance use problem severity were associated with therapeutic involvement and there is evidence that there may be important subgroup differences associated with gender and ethnicity. Further research on the interplay between these factors, therapeutic involvement, and recovery among adolescents can inform the development of strategies to enhance the engagement and retention of adolescents in drug treatment.