Adaptation and Pilot Testing of the Women’s Recovery Group for Young Adults (WRG-YA)

ABSTRACT

Gender-specific substance use disorder treatment has demonstrated promise in adult women, but is relatively unexplored in young adults. To address the specific needs of young adult females, the manual-based Women’s Recovery Group (WRG) was adapted for women ages 18–25. Treatment engagement and retention, group cohesiveness, satisfaction, and substance use outcomes were measured during group treatment and at 1-month follow up. This pilot supports the feasibility and initial acceptability of the adapted form of the WRG for young adults. Data from this study may inform future gender-specific treatment approaches for substance use disorders in younger populations.

KEYWORDS:

• Substance use disorder
• treatment engagement
• treatment retention
• Women’s Recovery Group (WRG)
• young adults

Disclosure statement

Dr. Welsh has received consulting fees from Analgesic Solutions and training fees from Chestnut Health Systems. Dr. Hunnicutt-Ferguson, Dr. Cattie, Ms. Shentu, Ms. Mataczynski, Dr. LoParo, and Dr. Greenfield have no disclosures to report.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award number UL1TR002378. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.