Bradley D. Olson

Development and psychometric evaluation of the Social Justice Scale (SJS).

The study describes the development of the Social Justice Scale (SJS). Practitioners, educators, students, and other members of the community differ on their attitudes and values regarding social justice. It is important to assess, not only individuals’ attitudes and values around social values, but also other constructs that might be related to social justice behaviors. The implication of Ajzen in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 50:179–211, (1991) theory of planned behavior suggests that attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and social norms predict intentions, which then lead to behaviors. A scale was designed to measure social justice-related values, attitudes, perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and intentions based on a four-factor conception of Ajzen’s theory. Confirmatory factor analysis and analyses for reliability and validity were used to test the properties of the scale.

Benefits and costs associated with mutual-help community-based recovery homes: The Oxford House model

We used data from a randomized controlled study of Oxford House (OH), a self-run, self-supporting recovery home, to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the program. Following substance abuse treatment, individuals that were assigned to an OH condition (n=68) were compared to individuals assigned to a usual care condition (n=61). Economic cost measures were derived from length of stay at an Oxford House residence, and derived from self-reported measures of inpatient and outpatient treatment utilization. Economic benefit measures were derived from self-reported information on monthly income, days participating in illegal activities, binary responses of alcohol and drug use, and incarceration. Results suggest that OH compared quite favorably to usual care: the net benefit of an OH stay was estimated to be roughly

Sense of Community Among Individuals in Substance Abuse Recovery.

29,000 per person on average. Bootstrapped standard errors suggested that the net benefit was statistically significant. Costs were incrementally higher under OH, but the benefits in terms of reduced illegal activity, incarceration and substance use substantially outweighed the costs. The positive net benefit for Oxford House is primarily driven by a large difference in illegal activity between OH and usual care participants. Using sensitivity analyses, under more conservative assumptions we still arrived at a net benefit favorable to OH of

Motivation Among Exoffenders Exiting Treatment: The Role of Abstinence Self-Efficacy

17,830 per person.

Political Orientation and the Psychology of Christian Prayer: How Conservatives and Liberals Pray

This study assessed the psychometric properties of the Perceived Sense of Community Scale (PSCS). Psychological sense of community is a construct that has been developed primarily in the field of community psychology and deals with the feelings of connectedness, group membership, and need fulfillment that members of small groups or larger communities may have toward other members. The current research explores this concept in the evaluation of Oxford Houses, residential homes designed to provide mutual support to individuals recovering from substance abuse and dependence, through the use of the PSCS. Overall, the PSCS was a multidimensional scale exhibiting a cluster of negatively phrased items with a large number of highly loading items. Within the three-factor structure, two factors were nearly perfectly correlated, and neither sex nor race bias affected the initial formulation. However, sex and race were significant (but of small magnitude) covariates in a later sample, and highly reliable subscales were formulated with five items. Taken together, the PSCS was capable of performing as an acceptable measurement model in latent analysis.

Income Generation in Recovering Heroin Users: A Comparative Analysis of Legal and Illegal Earnings

The relationships between motivation, treatment readiness, and abstinence self-efficacy were examined among a sample of exoffenders exiting inpatient treatment for substance use disorders. Hierarchical linear regression was conducted to examine changes in participants’ motivation levels in relation to abstinence self-efficacy beyond what would be expected from treatment readiness and substance use. Abstinence self-efficacy predicted significant decreases in motivation whereas treatment readiness and substance use predicted significant increases. However, there was not a significant relationship between abstinence self-efficacy and treatment readiness. Findings suggest that motivation for change among persons with substance use disorders is related to their self-efficacy for ongoing abstinence.

The What and Why of Effective Substance Abuse Treatment

The authors of this study examined relations between self-reported political orientation and the content of prayer narratives in a sample of 128 midlife North American Christians. Politically liberal Christians were more likely than politically conservative Christians to emphasize provision in prayer, asking God to provide resources for people and to fulfill human needs. Conservatives, however, were no more likely than liberals to emphasize protection in prayer, contrary to prediction. Nonetheless, politically conservative Christians tended to emphasize praise and thanksgiving in their prayers and tended to ask God for both guidance and forgiveness to a greater extent than did politically liberal Christians. The results are discussed in terms of recent research and theory on ideological scripts, life narratives, and the intersection of religion and politics in human lives.

Validity of the Adult Needs and Strengths Assessment with Substance Abuse Populations

Research has shown employment to be a central mediator to sustained recovery and community reentry for substance abusers; however, heroin users have lower employment rates and report lower mean incomes than other drug users. The authors of the present study assessed income-generating behaviors of substance users recruited from substance abuse treatment facilities (N = 247). Heroin users had higher mean incomes from illegal sources. Further, logistic regression analysis found heroin use to increase the likelihood of engagement in illegal income generating behaviors. As these results increase the likelihood of involvement in the criminal justice system, the implications for heroin specific treatment and rehabilitation are discussed.

All Roads Lead to Finance: A Critical Overview of Debt in the USA

The primary goal of this study was to examine the importance of effective substance abuse treatment, and the contextual factors that may contribute to treatment efficacy. Personal interviews were conducted to elaborate on the understanding of contextual factors such as therapeutic alliance and motivational interviewing from the client’s perspective. In this study, it was found that flexibility, negotiation, and motivation enhancement are consistent with effective treatment, and that these elements may provide a basis for strengthening the bond component. One noteworthy observation based upon relevant qualitative data is that the methodology of treatment seems to matter less than the strength of the therapeutic relationship. The present study also suggests possible applications of the research to real world settings.

Higher-order factors of the Big Five predict exploration and threat in life stories

Objective: The purpose of this study was to introduce a relatively new assessment tool, and to evaluate its validity as a clinical instrument of measurement and placement. The study examined the validity of the Adult Needs and Strengths Assessment (ANSA) as a standardized screening device in the treatment of substance use disorders. The authors analyzed the ANSA scores of 191 participants who were assigned to an episode of substance abuse treatment, focusing on the Level of Need algorithmic calculation of the ANSA, as well as three specific ANSA domains, including Substance Use Disorder, Criminal Behavior, and Community Connection. ANSA clinical scores were compared to scores from a self-report substance abuse survey. nMethods: It is important for therapists to know that the instruments of measurement they employ are documenting their clients’ perspective accurately. Therefore, analyses examined whether clinical assessments were capturing participants’ self-reported changes in substance-related outcomes. When a pilot study for this research revealed a positive correlation between the ANSA comprehensive clinical assessment and a brief substance abuse survey, the authors expanded the study to ascertain if other domains of the ANSA were correlated with the survey. nResults: Relationships were found between change scores on the ANSA and change scores on the survey selfreport, with the exception of the Community Connection domain which yielded no measurable relationship. As the study was intended to be a preliminary investigation of the ANSA, recommendations for further exploration of the ANSA’s algorithmic properties, as well as further research into other domains of the ANSA, were included. nConclusion: Preliminary evidence suggests that the ANSA is a valid tool of measurement, and that it does reflect the client’s perspective accurately, thus strengthening confidence in its use as a standardized screening instrument.