Adolescents in Therapeutic Communities: One-Year Posttreatment Outcomes

Abstract

Given the dearth of information concerning outcomes for adolescents who have been in treatment for substance abuse and related problems, the purpose of the present article is to examine the posttreatment status of adolescents who have been in residential therapeutic communities (TCs). One-year posttreatment outcome data are described for 485 adolescents, and separately for treatment “completers” and “noncompleters.” The majority of the sample had been mandated to treatment by the criminal justice system. Most reported marijuana as their main drug of abuse. There were significant reductions in drug use and criminal activity, and the most consistent predictors of positive outcomes were completion of treatment and not associating with deviant peers posttreatment. The findings were obtained on a treatment sample for whom there is relatively little research to date; they provide important evidence for the effectiveness of the therapeutic community for this population.

Keywords:

• adolescent drug abuse
• therapeutic communities
• treatment outcomes