INTEGRATING QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE-EVALUATION METHODS IN SUBSTANCE-ABUSE RESEARCH

For many years, there has been an ongoing debate about whether we shou ld focus on qualitative or quantitative evaluation. Although prior dis cussions have often been adversarial (i.e., advancing one to the exclu sion of the other or defending one's existence), most practitioners la rgely consider them to be two sides of the same coin. The need for int egration is particularly evident when evaluating substance abuse progr ams because the individuals involved often have competing contextual d emands and multiple problems that require the use of multiple types of treatment, outcomes, and analysis models. Unfortunately, there is lit tle published literature on how to do this. In this paper, some specif ic opportunities and techniques are identified for combining and integ rating qualitative and quantitative methods from the design stage thro ugh implementation and reporting.