Longitudinal trajectories in recovery capital and associations with substance use among adult drug treatment court clients.

Background: Recovery capital (RC) refers to the resources individuals use to support substance use disorder (SUD) recovery. Individuals with SUD who are involved with the criminal justice system often have limited RC. Drug treatment courts (DTCs), including traditional drug treatment courts (tDTCs) and opioid intervention courts (OICs), can link clients to important sources of RC in the short-term, but few studies have assessed RC longitudinally.

Methods: The current study analyzed five waves of data from a one-year longitudinal study on substance use and RC collected from clients of tDTCs and OICs (n=165, 52% male, 75% non-Hispanic White, Age=21-67 years). Mixed-effects models examined (1) within-person trends over time in RC, (2) individual characteristics associated with differences and changes in RC, and (3) patterns of relationships between RC and substance use over time. We also tested differences by court type.

Results: First, OIC participants had lower RC at baseline relative to tDTC participants, and there was considerable within-person variability in RC over time. Second, the effect of a high school diploma/GED at baseline on RC change over time was greater for OIC relative to tDTC participants. Third, there was a negative concurrent within-person association between drug use and RC that became stronger over time for OIC relative to tDTC participants.

Conclusions: This study is among the first to examine longitudinal, within-person trajectories in RC. Results revealed important within-person variability over time in RC that was linked to education and drug use, particularly among OIC clients. Findings could help inform DTC treatment approaches.