Circumstances, motivation, readiness, and suitability (the CMRS scales): predicting retention in therapeutic community treatment.
Based upon clinical considerations, scales were developed measuring client perceptions across four interrelated domains: circumstances (external pressures), motivation (intrinsic pressures), readiness, and suitability (CMRS) for residential TC treatment. This paper, the first in a series, reports findings on the reliability of the CMRS and its validity as a predictor of retention in TC treatment in three cohorts of consecutive admissions to a long-term residential TC. The main findings show that: (a) discriminant and factor analyses confirm the face validity of the original four rationale scales; (b) scores distribute into four groups, with most clients in the moderately low to moderately high range; (c) two cross-validation studies confirm the internal consistency of the scales, and a linear relationship between the separate and total CMRS scores and short-term retention in all three cohorts and long-term retention in two cohorts. The present psychometric study provides impressive findings on the reliability and validity of the CMRS scales as predictors of retention in long-term TCs. Although still considered experimental, awaiting replicational studies and firm conclusions concerning generalizability, the CMRS holds considerable promise for research, theory, and practice.
De Leon
G
G
Center for Therapeutic Community Research (CTCR), National Development and Research Institutes, Inc. (NDRI), New York 10013.
Melnick
G
G
Kressel
D
D
Jainchill
N
N
D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008134:Long-Term Care; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009519:New York City; D010343:Patient Admission; D010352:Patient Dropouts / Q000523:psychology*; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D013808:Therapeutic Community