An Exploration of the Relationship between Adolescents' Characteristics and Treatment Completion for Substance Use Disorder

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between selected adolescent characteristics and treatment completion in a large, national sample of adolescents receiving substance misuse treatment in 2011. Participants were de-identified adolescent entries between the ages of 12 and 17 in the Treatment Episode Dataset- Discharges (TEDS-D), which is a national census data system including persons discharged from public and private substance abuse treatment programs that received public funding. Chi-square tests of independence and logistic regressions were used to examine the relationships between adolescent characteristics and treatment completion. The results showed significant relationships between selected variables (sex, gender, primary substance problem, principal source of referral, frequency of use) and treatment completion, but with small to medium effect sizes. Implications, limitations and directions for future research are discussed.