Client Predictors of Therapeutic Alliance in Court-Mandated Substance Use Treatment

• Main Author: Punceles, Yasmine
• Format: Others
• Published: Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University 2021
• Subjects: therapeutic alliance; substance use treatment; court-mandated; Psychology
• Online Access: https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/650; https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1833&context=honors

The purpose of the current study was to investigate predictors of therapeutic alliance among a sample of 46 adults with substance misuse who were convicted of felony offenses and court-mandated to attend substance use treatment as part of their probation requirements. For this study, I purposed four hypotheses: (1) older participants will report a stronger therapeutic alliance with their therapist. (2) women will form a stronger therapeutic alliance with their therapist than men, (3) higher levels of distress will be associated with lower therapeutic alliance, and (4) people with more extensive criminal and substance use histories to have poorer therapeutic alliance. Data was collected quantitatively, utilizing a questionnaire method. Bivariate correlations were run on all study variables, as well as a multiple linear regression model. Results of this study found that older participants and number of months incarcerated predicted weaker therapeutic alliance. No statistically significant findings were found in relation to the DASS-21 or gender.