Discharge patterns of residents from halfway houses for male alcoholics

Length of stay (LOS) data for male alcoholics discharged from eitht halfway houses were examined in the light of the hypothesis that the rate of discharge would be a linear function of time. In general, the hypothesis was confirmed, although the rate of discharge for four houses was significantly accelerated during the first two weeks of residence. Further analysis showed that both resident characteristics and house structure (defined in terms of the number of hours of formal activities each week) contributed significantly to LOS. Resident characteristics accounted for 5.3% of the variance in LOS when house structure was controlled, and structure accounted for 1.6% of variance when resident characteristics were controlled. No significant interaction effects were detected. Implications of these results are discussed.