PARTICIPATION IN A PARENT TRAINING-PROGRAM FOR METHADONE CLIENTS

Programs for drug abusers are plagued by high rates of dropout. Becaus e of the strong relationship between longer treatment and positive out come, researchers have begun to study individual and program-specific factors that influence premature termination of treatment. For the mos t part, these studies have focused on dichotomous measures of dropout or number of sessions attended. In this article, we extend this line o f research in two ways. First, we develop and measure a number of indi cators of treatment participation based on therapist ratings. Second, we develop a model of treatment participation that employs both indivi dual and program-specific factors. The data show that tremendous varia tion in participation occurred even among those who attended a majorit y of sessions, which highlights the importance of obtaining more elabo rate measures of treatment participation. The model predicting treatme nt participation suggests that initiation of heroin use later in life, continued use of marijuana, and behavioral indicators of motivation a re the strongest predictors of program participation. Research and pra ctical implications of the findings are discussed.