Personal and situational perspectives on rejection of a homelessness and substance abuse program: An exploratory study

Services rejection is of special concern for outpatient substance abuse pro grams that treat adults who have experience with homelessness. Rejection is alleged to occur with alarming frequency among members of this population, and there is evidence that it has the potential to limit progress on drink ing, drug, and homeless problems. This article tests the contribution to re jection of two sets of factors: (1) special personal attributes, which ore widely believed to affect homeless clients' motivation or ability to partic ipate in an intervention; and (2) situational factors (that is, external ci rcumstances), which occasionally ore alleged to influence clients' percepti ons of the rewards of the services compared to the costs. The results more generally imply that client responses are more fully explained by environme ntal cues and experiences than by the measured personal deficits. Isolation is the only predictive special personal attribute.