Other Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Substance Use, Education, Employment, And Criminal Activity Outcomes Of Adolescents In Outpatient Chemical Dependency Programs, Michael T. French, Ana I. Balsa, Jenny F. Homer, Constance M. Weisner

Sociology Faculty Articles and Papers

Although the primary outcome of interest in clinical evaluations of addiction treatment programs is usually abstinence, participation in these programs can have a wide range of consequences. This study evaluated the effects of treatment initiation on substance use, school attendance, employment, and involvement in criminal activity at 12 months post-admission for 419 adolescents (aged 12 to 18) enrolled in chemical dependency recovery programs in a large managed care health plan. Instrumental variables estimation methods were used to account for unobserved selection into treatment by jointly modeling the likelihood of participation in treatment and the odds of attaining a certain outcome …