Factors affecting motivation to treatment in severely dependent alcoholics

• Objective: The paper explores environmental, developmental and personality related factors as predictors of motivation to treatment for alcoholism using concepts such as social situation on admission, treatment career, age, education and adventurous patterns of behavior. Method: The original population consists of 603 severely dependent alcoholic patients (mean age 40 years, 24% women, 42% compulsorily committed). In a structural equation model estimation, 85% of the original cases were used, compulsorily as well as voluntarily admitted patients. A reduced model was tried on voluntary patients alone. Results: In the main model, pattern of behavior and age were not related to the motivation to treatment, while treatment career had some negative impact. Social problems were related to less motivation to treatment. In turn, a worse social situation was related to more treatment experience. The reduced model on voluntary patients alone confirmed the main findings, although more previous treatment tended to be related to more motivation. Conclusion: Motivation was mostly related to a better social situation, having �more to lose�. A collapse in the social situation was more an obstacle than a promoter of motivation. There was no support for statements that �maturing out� would result in more motivation and inconclusive findings concerning the impact on motivation from having many previous treatment experiences. The pattern of behavior was not directly related to the level of motivation. Based on these findings, the relevance of social work for motivation to treatment is discussed.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Socialt arbete (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Social Work (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Psykiatri (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Psychiatry (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Beroendelära (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Substance Abuse (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Motivation to treatment for alcoholism

help-seeking

addiction career

personality

pattern of behavior

structural equation

path model

LISREL.

Psychology

Psykologi

Social work

Socialt arbete

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