Measuring employment among substance-using offenders.
Employment has been identified as an important predictor of drug abuse treatment outcome; however, employment has been measured in a variety of different ways in the drug abuse literature and typically with community samples. The present IRB-approved study used factor analysis to identify commonalities among several employment measures collected from a sample of drug court offenders who entered one of two Kentucky drug courts between March 2000 and November 2002. Measures included demographics, employment, substance use, and criminality. The factor analysis produced four employment factors: status, earnings, duration, and stability. These factors had different correlation patterns with substance use and criminality. Study limitations are noted.
Center on Drug and Alcohol Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40536-0086, USA. matt.webster@uky.edu
J Matthew
JM
Webster
Michele
M
Staton-Tindall
Jamieson L
JL
Duvall
Thomas F
TF
Garrity
Carl G
CG
Leukefeld
D000328:Adult; D003415:Crime / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*