title: The Sponsor Alliance Inventory: Assessing the Therapeutic Bond Between 12-Step Attendees and Their Sponsors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Within 12-step mutual-help organizations (MHOs), a sponsor plays a key recovery-specific role analogous to a 'lay therapist', serving as a role model, support and mentor. Research shows that attendees who have a sponsor have higher rates of abstinence and remission from substance use disorder (SUD), yet, while myriad formal psychotherapy studies demonstrate the therapeutic significance of the alliance between patients and professional clinicians on treatment outcomes, very little is known about the influence of the 'therapeutic alliance' between 12-step members and their sponsor. Greater knowledge about this key 12-step relationship could help explain greater degrees of 12-step effects. To bridge this gap, this study sought to develop and test a measure assessing the 12-step sponsee-sponsor therapeutic alliance--the Sponsor Alliance Inventory (SAI).
  
  
  METHODS
  Young adults (N = 302) enrolled in a prospective effectiveness study who reported having a 12-step sponsor during the study (N = 157) were assessed at treatment entry, and 3, 6 and 12 months later on the SAI, their 12-step MHO attendance, involvement and percent days abstinent (PDA).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Principal axis extraction revealed a single, 10-item, internally consistent (α's ≥ 0.95) scale that explained the majority of variance and was largely invariant to primary substance, gender and time. Criterion validity was also supported with higher SAI scores predicting greater proximal 12-step attendance, involvement and PDA.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The SAI may serve as a brief, valid measure to assess the degree of sponsee-sponsor 'therapeutic alliance' within 12-step communities and may help augment explanatory models estimating the effects of MHOs on recovery outcomes.
authors.affiliation: MGH Psychiatry, Center for Addiction Medicine, Recovery Research Institute, 60 Staniford Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA jkelly11@mgh.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: John F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.affiliation: MGH Psychiatry, Center for Addiction Medicine, Recovery Research Institute, 60 Staniford Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
authors.forename: M Claire
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Greene
authors.affiliation: MGH Psychiatry, Center for Addiction Medicine, Recovery Research Institute, 60 Staniford Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
authors.forename: Brandon
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bergman
authors.affiliation: MGH Psychiatry, Center for Addiction Medicine, Recovery Research Institute, 60 Staniford Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
authors.forename: Bettina B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Hoeppner
authors.affiliation: MGH Psychiatry, Center for Addiction Medicine, Recovery Research Institute, 60 Staniford Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
authors.forename: Valerie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Slaymaker
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012657:Self-Help Groups; D012944:Social Support; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation; D055815:Young Adult