title: Talking about friends, drugs, and change: meanings of friendship in substance abusers' change talk.
abstract: This article explores the meanings of substance-abusing clients attach to friendships during motivational treatment sessions in Probation Service. Sessions (98) were videotaped in 12 probation service offices in Finland in 2007 to 2009. By using semiotic framework, this qualitative study examines client's change talk utterance about friendships as a symbolic sign. The findings indicate that the friendships play an important role in the substance-abusing clients' motivation to change and in their treatment outcome. The study suggests that the personal meanings of clients' utterances in motivational treatment sessions could be seen as potential predictors of their future behavior.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tampere , Tampere , Finland.
authors.forename: Harri
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sarpavaara
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D055030:Drug Users / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D033062:Friends; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D036301:Qualitative Research; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D055815:Young Adult