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The comparative recidivism rates of voluntary‐ and coerced admission male alcoholics
Author(s) -
Watson Charles G.,
Brown Kevin,
Tilleskjor Curt,
Jacobs Lyle,
Pucel John
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(198807)44:4<573::aid-jclp2270440414>3.0.co;2-m
Subject(s) - recidivism , coercion (linguistics) , turnover , psychology , psychiatry , interpersonal communication , peer pressure , clinical psychology , social psychology , linguistics , philosophy , management , economics
Abstract The outcomes of inpatient alcoholics who reported that they had been coerced into treatment by commitment or pressure from others were compared in a follow‐up study to those of alcoholics who described themselves as voluntary admissions. Ten assessments of control over drinking, number of drinking days in the past week, and intoxication since previous appraisal were made by collaterals between 2 weeks and 18 months after treatment. Even though the data were analyzed in several ways, the number of significant differences did not exceed chance expectations. This suggests that the prognoses of alcoholics who present for treatment under court order or interpersonal pressure were not substantially different from those of men who claim to have entered without coercion. However, the differences between the groups' Control over Drinking ratings, even though not statistically significant, consistently favored the coerced admissions, which raises the possibility that their outcomes may have been slightly better than those of the voluntary admissions.