Gm. Coon et al., SELF-EFFICACY AND SUBSTANCE-ABUSE - ASSESSMENT USING A BRIEF PHONE INTERVIEW, Journal of substance abuse treatment, 15(5), 1998, pp. 385-391
Considerable research has shown that one's self-efficacy to avoid ciga
rette smoking and alcohol use increases during treatment and that high
self-efficacy ratings at follow-up are associated with positive outco
me. The present study extends existing research in two ways. First, se
lf-efficacy was assessed among a predominantly crack-cocaine-using pop
ulation during treatment and 1 month following treatment. Second, the
viability of a brief self-efficacy measure (4 item) was assessed using
a phone interview. Results from 186 patients (61% reporting crack-coc
aine) interviewed following treatment showed that self-efficacy increa
sed during treatment and was higher for patients reporting abstinence
1 month after treatment. The results from the brief self-efficacy asse
ssment were comparable to an established version of the self-efficacy
measure. These findings suggest that (a) self-efficacy may be related
to the maintenance of abstinence from cocaine and other substances of
abuse, and (b) self-efficacy can be measured quickly and reliably thro
ugh a phone interview (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.