Understanding Recovery Barriers: Youth Perceptions About Substance Use Relapse

Abstract

Objective To qualitatively explore how treatment-involved youth retrospectively contextualize relapse from substance use. Methods Fourteen focus groups were conducted with 118 youth (78.3% male; 66.1% Latino) enrolled in participating substance abuse treatment programs (4 young adult and 10 adolescent) throughout Los Angeles County. Transcripts were analyzed for relapse perception themes. Results Dominant relapse themes include emotional reasons (90%), life stressors (85%), cognitive factors (75%), socialization processes (65%), and environmental issues (55%). Conclusions Youth perceptions about relapse during treatment should be used to better inform clinical approaches and shape early-intervention recovery agendas for substance-abusing youth.

Exploring the Factor Structure of a Recovery Assessment Measure among Substance-Abusing Youth

“…Given that research related to youth recovery show recovery to be more about improving one’s behavioral lifestyle, asserting personal control, having confidence, maturity, discipline, and will power over their lives (e.g., Gonzales et al 2012a; 2012b), we explored the psychometric properties of a recovery measure that taps into the latter definitions of recovery – using the RAS, which has been commonly used with mental health populations.…”

“…Research among substance abusing youth supports these latter views. For example, recent work by Gonzales et al (2012a; 2012b) found that youth in substance abuse treatment tend to endorse recovery as a process of lifestyle change, asserting personal control to improve one’s lifestyle using wellness-based approaches to getting healthy/healing, and having confidence in oneself to change.…”

Recovery Supports for Young People: What Do Existing Supports Reveal About the Recovery Environment?

“…Once treatment has ended, either abruptly or through its natural course, youth then return to their home environment, often where their initial substance problems began. This can be especially challenging for adolescents who were enrolled in inpatient treatment, because these programs have not given them opportunities to practice their sobriety in their home environment (Cavailoa, Schiff, & Kane-Cavailoa, 1990), or prepared them for the competing demands in their unstructured, community environments (Gonzales et al, 2012). …”

Data Collection Strategies and Measurement Tools for Assessing Academic and Therapeutic Outcomes in Recovery Schools

“…Studies suggest that roughly 66% of youth return to using drugs within 6 months following treatment (Cornelius et al, 2003), and about 85% of adolescent drug abusers report at least some use within the 1st year following treatment (Winters, Stinchfield, Opland, Weller, & Latimer, 2000). Triggers for relapse vary by individual and circumstance but can be as mundane as hearing a certain song on the radio or as significant as hanging out with friends from the old drug crowd (Gonzales, Anglin, Beattie, Ong, & Glik, 2012). For adolescents, two significant triggers for relapse are related to attending school: (a) school stress , including failing classes and facing discipline issues and (b) socialization processes , defined by peer pressure, media influence, social networks, and social norms (Gonzales et al, 2012).…”

“…Triggers for relapse vary by individual and circumstance but can be as mundane as hearing a certain song on the radio or as significant as hanging out with friends from the old drug crowd (Gonzales, Anglin, Beattie, Ong, & Glik, 2012). For adolescents, two significant triggers for relapse are related to attending school: (a) school stress , including failing classes and facing discipline issues and (b) socialization processes , defined by peer pressure, media influence, social networks, and social norms (Gonzales et al, 2012). The school often serves as the site of social connections from which adolescents gain exposure to drug-using peers, where they obtain or sell their drugs, and also the locationwhere the stressors originate (such as academic struggles or interpersonal struggles with peers or authorities).…”