title: The dimensions of change in therapeutic community treatment instrument.
abstract: In this article, the authors describe the refinement and preliminary evaluation of the Dimensions of Change in Therapeutic Community Treatment Instrument (DCI), a measure of treatment process. In Study 1, a 99-item DCI, administered to a cross-sectional sample of substance abuse clients (N = 990), was shortened to 54 items on the basis of results from confirmatory factor analyses and item response theory invariance tests. In Study 2, confirmatory factor analyses of the 54-item DCI, completed by a longitudinal cohort of 993 clients, established and validated an 8-factor solution across 2 subpopulations (adults and adolescents) and 2 time points (treatment entry and 30-days postentry). The results of the 2 studies are encouraging and support use of the 54-item DCI as a tool to measure treatment process.
authors.affiliation: RAND Drug Policy Research Center, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138, USA. orlando@rand.org
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Orlando
authors.forename: Suzanne L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Wenzel
authors.forename: Pat
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ebener
authors.forename: Michael C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.forename: Wallace
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Mandell
authors.forename: Kirsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Becker
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires