Effects of strength of relationship ties in recovery homes: A conundrum.

Recovery homes are a widespread source of support for those attempting to maintain abstinence. For those who are able to remain in these settings for at least 6 months, outcomes tend to be favorable; however, many leave prematurely. There is a need to better understand the social integration processes that play a major role in giving recovery home residents access to available recovery-related social capital that is associated with better outcomes.

Dynamic social network analysis of a brief alcohol intervention trial in heavy-drinking college students shows spillover effects.

Background: Heavy-drinking college students tend to have close social networks, and there is theoretical and empirical support for the idea that behavior change can spread through those networks via close ties. The objective of this research was to determine whether intervention-induced behavior change in a subset of heavy drinkers in a sociometric (whole) college class-year social network is transmitted to other heavy drinkers in the network, resulting in reduced behavioral risk and change in network ties.

Methods: We conducted a controlled trial in which most of a first-year college class (N = 1236; 56.

Willingness to Lend Resources is Associated with Increases in Recovery and Participation in Community Activities.

Recovery homes may facilitate individuals with substance use disorders re-integration back into community settings by providing friendship, resources, and advice. Participants of the current study were over 600 residents of 42 Oxford House recovery homes. Findings indicated that willingness to share resources in the form of loans was associated with higher levels of house involvement in recovery home chapters.

Preclinical and clinical evidence for suppression of alcohol intake by apremilast.

Treatment options for alcohol use disorders (AUDs) have minimally advanced since 2004, while the annual deaths and economic toll have increased alarmingly. Phosphodiesterase type 4 (PDE4) is associated with alcohol and nicotine dependence. PDE4 inhibitors were identified as a potential AUD treatment using a bioinformatics approach.

Dynamic Interdependence of Advice Seeking, Loaning, and Recovery Characteristics in Recovery Homes.

Recovery homes in the US provide stable housing for over 200,000 individuals with past histories of homelessness, psychiatric co-morbidity and criminal justice involvement. We need to know more about how these settings help those remain in recovery. Our study measured advice seeking and willingness-to-loan relationships and operationalized them as a dynamic multiplex social network-multiple, simultaneous interdependent relationships--that exist within 42 Oxford House recovery homes over time.

A Longitudinal Study of E-Cigarette, Cigarette, and Marijuana Use Sequence in Youth.

Objective: There is evidence linking youth use of electronic (e-) cigarettes to subsequent cigarette and marijuana use, raising public health concerns. We examined the sequence of use of e-cigarettes, conventional cigarettes, and marijuana in a longitudinal sample of adolescents, to determine if use of e-cigarettes often preceded use of other substances.

Methods: We collected self-reports from 1123 Oregon adolescents (52% female; 37% Hispanic) longitudinally from 8 to 11 grade (8 total surveys) regarding their lifetime (ever use) and current use (last 30 days) of e-cigarettes, cigarettes, and marijuana.

Individual and Contextual Protective and Risk Characteristics for Residents of Recovery Homes.

Some recovery homes have facilitating relationships and organizational characteristics, and there are also social capital differences among residents of these recovery homes. It is important to better understand the impact of protective and risk individual and house factors on recovery issues among residents of these community-based settings. Individuals from 42 recovery homes were followed for up to six data collection periods over two years.

Personal and Environmental Social Capital Predictors of Relapse Following Departure from Recovery Homes.

Substance use recovery homes represent the largest residential, community-based post-treatment option for those with substance use disorders in the United States. It is still unclear what unique factors predict relapse after residents leave such homes. This study presents results of a longitudinal study of 497 residents who departed from 42 Oxford House recovery houses.

Social integration in recovery living environments: A dynamic network approach.

Oxford Houses (OHs) are a large network of self-run community-based settings for individuals with substance use disorders. This present study explored a model based on conceptualizing recovery home social systems as dynamic multirelational (multiplex) social networks. The model is developed from data obtained from 42 OH recovery homes in three parts of the US, addressing whole networks of friendship, close friendship, and willingness to loan money.

Advice seeking and loaning of money related to relapse in recovery homes.

Recovery homes help individuals who have completed substance use treatment programs re-integrate back into the community. However, it is unclear what factors determine who will succeed in these settings and how these factors may be reinforced or undermined by the social interactions and social networks between residents living in the Oxford House recovery homes. In an effort to better understand these factors, the current study evaluated (a) the extent to which the density of social networks (i.

Exploring possible network properties facilitating recovery for residents of sober living homes.

Background: Recovery homes provide supportive settings for thousands of individuals with substance use disorders each year. However, not all residents of recovery homes improve in these settings, and the reasons for both improvement and lack of improvement are still unclear. It is possible that those low in recovery might benefit when they are in settings with high recovery residents.

Reducing health disparities among black individuals in the post-treatment environment.

An important step in reducing health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities with substance use disorders involves identifying interventions that lead to successful recovery outcomes for this population. The current study evaluated outcomes of a community-based recovery support program for those with substance use disorders. Participants included 632 residents of recovery homes in three states in the US.

Context Matters: Home-level But Not Individual-Level Recovery Social Capital Predicts Residents' Relapse.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the literature on the prediction of substance use relapse, using sophisticated systems' approaches to individuals and their contexts. In the current study of 42 recovery homes, we investigated the construct of social capital from the perspective of both recovery home residents and the house level. A confirmatory factor analysis found a latent recovery factor (including elements of recovery capital, comprising resources such as wages, self-efficacy, stress, self-esteem, quality of life, hope, sense of community, and social support) at both the individual and the recovery house level.

Network measures of advice-seeking and resource sharing are related to well-being in recovery homes.

Background: There is a need to better understand the extent to which social capital (reflected in social networks tapping friendship, financial support, advice/informational support) can aid recovery for those residents living in abstinence-based recovery homes.

Methods: Social network characteristics of 42 recovery homes (Oxford Houses) were examined, including friendship, willingness to loan money, and advice-seeking to assess the extent to which house network patterns were related to house-level resident measures of proximal recovery outcomes of well-being (e.g.

An Empirically-based Theory of the Relationships Among Social Embeddedness, Economic Viability, Learned Recovery Skills and Perceived Quality of Life in Recovery Homes.

Key characteristics of recovery homes include governance style (which can play a central role in structuring recovery mechanisms), social embeddedness (e.g., social relationships within the home), economic viability (e.

Recovery home networks as social capital.

Ensuring recovery home residents' social integration into a home environment is important for preventing early dropout and facilitating sustained recovery. Social capital theory may provide an explanation for how recovery homes may protect residents and improve recovery rates. However, little is known about how social capital in recovery home environments is structured and accessed.

A promising recovery housing model for American Indian communities.

In 2016, two Oxford House (OH) recovery homes were established for the Suquamish Tribal reservation. A group of researchers interviewed house members and key individuals responsible for the creation of these two unique OHs. Because American Indians are an at-risk population for substance use disorders, our study explored whether an OH-type recovery home model could be successfully adapted to this population, given the specific nature of tribal cultures.

Friend Selection and Influence Effects for First Heavy Drinking Episode in Adolescence.

Objective: Heavy alcohol consumption has both immediate and longer-term risks for adolescents. Using a dynamic network modeling approach, this study investigated the role of adult supervision and affiliation with heavy drinking friends in predicting the risk of a first heavy drinking episode in a community sample of adolescents.

Method: Two cohorts of ninth grade youth (n = 1,220, 48% male) from seven communities were surveyed three times over the course of the school year (fall, winter, and spring), each time assessing their friendship networks, whether they had ever experienced a heavy drinking episode, frequency of heavy drinking over the past month, and the amount of unsupervised time spent with each of their friends over the past month.

Quality of life as a predictor of social relationships in Oxford House.

Improved access to housing and recovery support is a low-cost, high-potential opportunity to help people recovering from alcohol and substance use sustain their recoveries. Oxford House (OH) recovery homes represent a recovery-favorable social environment for at least some people, but it is still unclear which resident characteristics and relational dynamics affect the social integration of residents. In the current study, OH residents in three geographic locations completed a social network instrument and self-rated their quality of life (QOL).

Relational victimization and peer affiliate prosocial behaviors in African American adolescents: Moderating effects of gender and antisocial behavior.

Introduction: Experiencing relational victimization (e.g., peer exclusion, untrue rumors) during adolescence can have negative social-emotional consequences, including increased antisocial behavior and substance use.

Associations between marijuana use and anxious mood lability during adolescence.

Objective: To date, research investigating the association between adolescent marijuana use and anxiety is mixed, given differences in how anxiety is measured and the age ranges studied. The research is further limited as many relevant studies have small sample sizes. This investigation examines the association between marijuana use (use in the past 30 days) and anxious mood lability (rapid fluctuation in emotional states) during early adolescence (average age 14.

Strategic Players for Identifying Optimal Social Network Intervention Subjects.

We present a method whereby social network ties are used to identify behavioral leaders who are situated in the network such that these individuals are: 1) able to influence other individuals who are in need of and most receptive to intervention, thereby maximizing the impact of the intervention; and 2) not embedded with ties that are likely to be behaviorally antagonistic to the intervention or that would compromise the optimal evaluation of intervention efficacy. In this study we developed a novel method which we call Strategic Players, which is a solution for identifying a set of players who are close to a target subset of the network (i.e.

Influence of parent-youth relationship, parental monitoring, and parent substance use on adolescent substance use onset.

The quality of parent-child relationships likely influences many decisions and behaviors made by early adolescents, including their alcohol and marijuana use. We examined how parent-youth relationship quality, parental monitoring, and parent substance use were associated with initiation of alcohol use, binge drinking, and marijuana use by 400 adolescents by the spring of 8th grade (ages 13-14), and changes in initiation through 9th grade (assessed 3 times; fall, winter, and spring). We measured both parent and adolescent report of parent-youth relationship quality and parental monitoring, expecting that both perspectives would uniquely contribute.

Legalization of recreational marijuana and community sales policy in Oregon: Impact on adolescent willingness and intent to use, parent use, and adolescent use.

Studies investigating the impact of medical marijuana legalization have found no significant changes in adolescent use. In one of the few studies focused on recreational marijuana, we investigated how recreational marijuana legalization and community sales policy influenced factors that likely impact youth use (youth willingness and intent to use, parent use) as well as youth use. Legalization of recreational marijuana in Oregon coincided with our study on adolescent substance use.

A longitudinal study predicting adolescent tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use by behavioral characteristics of close friends.

Few studies have examined in detail how specific behaviors of close friends put adolescents at risk for specific types of substance use. Using a prospective, longitudinal design, we examined how well the substance use of 248 young urban adolescents was predicted by perceptions of their 3 closest friends' problematic behaviors: (1) using substances, (2) offering substances, and (3) engaging with friends in risky behavior (substance use, illegal behavior, violent behavior, or high-risk sexual behavior). Longitudinal multivariate repeated measures models were tested to predict tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use and perceived closeness was tested as a moderator of the effects of perceptions of problematic peer behavior.