The aim of this study is to assess the differential effectiveness of treatment of drug-abusing women who have children and have been randomly assigned to one of two conditions: regular therapeutic community treatment without their children or regular therapeutic community treatment with their children living with them in a Mother-Child Unit (MCU). In this study, which is aimed particularly at low income, minority women, a primary measure of differential effectiveness will be post-treatment drug-free status of the MCU and comparison groups. Other measures such as length of stay in treatment, post-treatment employment, criminality, and prosocial functioning will give measures of the effectiveness of the MCU. The study will take place at Amity, Inc. in Tucson, Arizona, a traditional therapeutic community that has piloted this MCU model and has data suggestive of the hypothesis that adding the MCU improves treatment and post-treatment functioning. The research protocol and statistical analysis will be administered by the University of Arizona, Department of Psychology. While evidence mounts concerning both the negative effects of maternal drug use upon mothers and their offspring and the reluctance of women with children to enter treatment or to remain in treatment when separated from their children, few programs of any modality have made alterations to remove this significant baffler to treatment if the hypothesis of this study is supported, further studies regarding enhancements of the MCU would be suggested, as well as measures to determine the differential effectiveness of the MCU on the children of addicted women. Support of the hypothesis would suggest widespread replication of the MCU in therapeutic communities throughout the country.
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