Coping as a predictor of adolescent substance abuse treatment outcome

The present study examines whether skills for coping with relapse-risk situations assessed during treatment can predict outcome in adolescents treated for drug and alcohol abuse. After the exclusion of individuals who evidenced low commitment to change, who were institutionalized following treatment, or for whom outcome data were unreliable, analyses were conducted on 57 adolescents. It was hypothesized that coping factors reflecting problem-focused, social-support, self-blame, and wishful-thinking strategies would predict 6-month outcome status. A multiple regression analysis found that the coping factors accounted for significant variance in the prediction of a composite measure of treatment outcome and also predicted variables reflecting total days using and initial length of abstinence. Examination of the influence of coping factors in relation to outcome revealed that wishful thinking and social support contributed significantly to the prediction of total days using and length of initial abstinence, respectively. These findings were interpreted to suggest that one's cognitive approach to coping may impact drug and alcohol relapse by reducing appraised stress in a relapse-risk situation and, thus, decreasing active coping efforts. Additionally, these results highlight the importance to successful outcome of utilizing social resources. The findings are interpreted to suggest that interventions aimed at cognitive aspects of coping and enhancing social support in substance abusing teens may be useful in preventing relapse.