Elizabeth Perkins

• Morehead State University

This research focused on the impact of having one or more dogs on romantic relationships among college-age cohabiting couples. One hundred and eighteen romantic cohabitants, among whom either or both partners had a dog, from three universities completed an anonymous, voluntary 41-item survey. Quantitative data included the bulk of the items analyze...

The study purpose was to examine factors affecting women in completing drug court. Participants were 212 women drug court participants selected via stratified random sampling (by county) from the larger Kentucky Drug Court participant population. Various secondary data sources were used (e.g., participant assessment, Management Information System),...

Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) is defined as the “recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act” (TVPA, 2000) where the person is a citizen of the U.S. and under age 18 years. The purpose of this study was to gain a more informed understanding of the scope of the problem o...

This study examined individual factors and during-program data to understand drug court program completion. A total of 534 Kentucky Drug Court (KDC) participants were randomly selected from the larger KDC population (N = 4,881). Logistic regression showed that older age and receiving outpatient referrals were associated with completion. Factors ass...

Heroin use rates have dramatically increased across the country in recent years. Kentucky has been particularly affected due in part to policies aimed at restricting the availability of prescription painkillers, resulting in making heroin more available and cheap. This study investigated differences between heroin users and nonheroin users in their...

The study purpose was to examine gender differences in factors of potential importance (i.e., substance use, mental health, treatment motivation, criminal activity/thinking) which may help predict treatment outcome among a sample of individuals in drug court. Baseline data were collected via face-to-face interviews from a sample of individuals part...

The study purpose was to examine differences in substance use among individuals in drug court (N = 583) in rural Appalachian (n = 301) and urban non-Appalachian areas (n = 282). A series of logistic regression analyses suggested individuals in the rural Appalachian area were significantly more likely to report lifetime use of cocaine, illicit opiat...

Substance abuse counselors are vulnerable to burnout, which has negative repercussions for the counselor, employing organization, and clients. However, little is known about differences in counselor burnout from the counselors' perspective in rural versus urban treatment centers. In 2008, focus group data from 28 rural and urban counselors in a sou...

Substance abuse counselors who work with offenders are facing increasing caseloads, which puts them at higher risk of job frustration. The purpose of this study was to explore differences between substance abuse counselors employed in prison versus community settings in terms of level of organizational support and job frustration. This study also i...

This study examines compassion fatigue, burnout and compassion satisfaction in two groups of counselors who specialize in substance dependency treatment in order to identify the unique features of substance abuse service delivery that may be related to professional quality of life. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 substance abuse couns...

Focus group data was collected from 28 substance abuse treatment counselors employed in rural and urban areas to examine their perceptions of factors influencing treatment outcomes. The influence of the counselor characteristics (i.e., education, experience, and recovery status) on client outcomes and geographic differences are explored. Focus grou...

Prenatal substance use contributes birth defects, prematurity, and infant mortality in the U.S. As such, it is critical that medical professionals receive appropriate education and actively engage in screening patients; however, a physician's gender may influence differences in screening practices. The purpose of this study is to examine male and f...

The purpose of this study is to use the Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies' (CJ-DATS) Inmate Pre-Release Assessment (IPASS), which recommends either intensive or non-intensive treatment after release, to predict rural offenders'12-step attendance and treatment entry within 6 months of release from prison. IPASS scores indicated that 52%...

Research Summary: Interviews and surveys were used to measure the extent of problem-oriented policing (POP) by individual police officers in the San Diego Police Department. Officers tended to engage in small-scale problem solving with little formal analysis or assessment. Responses generally included enforcement plus one or two more collaborative...