Leisure of opiate addicts at posttreatment follow-up

Abstract

Follow-up data for 1,174 opiate addicts were used to examine leisure reported prior to an interview conducted approximately 6 yrs after admission to treatment for drug abuse. Comparisons of self-reported leisure for the pre- and posttreatment follow-up periods showed an overall shift toward more positive, socially accepted leisure activities at follow-up; more free time was spent with family and with friends who did not use drugs. In addition, positive leisure at follow-up, as well as more positive changes in leisure over time, were related to favorable outcomes on drug use, criminality, and productive activities measures during the year before the follow-up interview. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Full text

Journal
of
Counseling Psychology
1981, Vol.
28, No.
1,36-39
Copyright 1981
by the
American Psychological Association, Inc.
0022-0167/81/2801/0036$00.75
Leisure
of
Opiate Addicts
at
Posttreatment
Follow-Up
D.
Dwayne
Simpson,
Rick
Crandall,
L.
James
Savage,
and
Elfi
Pavia-Krueger
Institute
of
Behavioral Research,
Texas
Christian University
Follow-up
data
for
1,174 opiate addicts
were
used
to
examine leisure reported
prior
to an
interview conducted approximately
6
years after admission
to
treatment
for
drug abuse. Comparisons
of
self-reported leisure
for the
pre-
treatment
and
posttreatment
follow-up
periods showed
that
there
was an
overall shift toward more positive, socially accepted leisure activities
at
follow-
up and
that
more
free
time
was
spent with
family
and
with friends
who did not
use
drugs.
In
addition, positive leisure
at
follow-up,
as
well
as
more positive
changes
in
leisure over time, were related
to
favorable outcomes
on
drug use,
criminality,
and
productive activities measures during
the
year
before
the
fol-
low-up
interview.
Patterns
of
leisure among drug users
have
received
little
research attention.
This
may
reflect
in
part
the
conceptual
and
methodological problems
in
defining
leisure
in
a
drug-using population
that
frequently
has a
great deal
of
"free
time"
as a
result
of
not
being involved
in
full-time
employment,
school,
or
homemaking. Leisure
is
generally
defined
subjectively
by the
individual
on the
basis
of
pleasure,
free
choice,
and
intrinsic
motivation with respect
to an
activity during
free
time (Neulinger, 1974),
but not all
free-time
activities
are
necessarily leisure.
Constructive leisure
has
been suggested
as
an
area
in
need
of
emphasis
in the
treatment
of
drug users (Brock
&
Bass, 1977)
and has
been included
in
counseling with alcoholics
(Hitzhusen, 1973). Indeed, involvement
in
leisure
activities—such
as
reading, sports,
and
social
activities—has
been
found
to be
related
to
illicit drug
use
(Graeven
&
Schaef,
1978;
Lin &
Dickinson, 1977).
This
study
was
supported
by the
National
Institute
on
Drug Abuse
Grant
H81 DA
01598-02S1.
The in-
terpretations
and
conclusions presented
in
this
article
do
not
necessarily
represent
the
position
of the
National
Institute
on
Drug Abuse
or the
Department
of
Health,
Education,
and
Welfare.
The
authors
thank
S. B.
Sells
and
Dennis
Irons
for
their
contributions
in
preparing
this
article
and
per-
forming
the
analyses,
respectively.
Rick Crandall
is now at the
University
of San
Fran-
cisco.
:'
Requests
for
reprints
should
be
sent
to D.
Dwayne
Simpson,
Texas
Christian
University,
Institute
of Be-
havioral
Research,
P.O.
Box
32902,
Fort
Worth,
Texas
76129.
The
literature
on
leisure activities
of
drug
users
is
sparse
but
suggests
that
leisure could
play
an
important role
in
prevention
as
well
as
treatment
of
drug abuse. Leisure activi-
ties
have
not
been evaluated
in
conjunction
with
posttreatment
follow-up
outcomes,
however,
and one can
only speculate
on how
changes
in the use of
leisure time might
be
associated
with indicators
of
drug-abuse
rehabilitation.
To
address
this
issue,
the
current study examined leisure within
the
general context
of
follow-up
treatment
evaluation research based
on the
nationally
oriented Drug Abuse Reporting Program
(DARP;
Sells
&
Simpson, 1980).
The
total
DARP
data
system included admission
and
bimonthly during-treatment
status
reports
on
almost 44,000 DARP admissions
to 52
federally
funded community
treatment
programs
from
1969
to
1973 (Sells
&
Simp-
son, 1976).
The
present article
(an
abbre-
viated version
of a
more complete report
by
Simpson, Crandall, Savage,
&
Pavia-
Krueger,
in
press)
is one of
several related
studies
on
follow-up
samples
from
the
DARP population.
Method
Subjects
A
stratified
random
sample
of
2,295 former
clients
from
26
different
DARP
agencies
was
selected
for the
follow-up
study
as
reported
in
detail
by
Simpson,
Lloyd,
and
Savage (Note
1). The
follow-up
sample
included
black
and
white
clients
of
both
sexes
from
methadone
36