The Influence of Posttreatment Mutual Help Group Participation on the Friendship Networks of Substance Abuse Patients
Abstract
The effect of 12‐step mutual help groups (e.g., Narcotics Anonymous) on members' friendship networks has received little attention. This 1‐year longitudinal study examined such effects in a sample of 2,337 male substance abuse inpatients, 57.7% of whom became significantly involved in 12‐step activities (e.g., reading program literature, attending meetings) after treatment. An a priori model of the interplay of 12‐step involvement and friendship networks was tested using structural equation modeling, and found to have excellent fit to the data. Twelve‐step group involvement after treatment predicted better general friendship characteristics (e.g., number of close friends) and substance abuse‐specific friendship characteristics (e.g., proportion of friends who abstain from drugs and alcohol) at follow‐up. Results are discussed in terms of how mutual help group involvement benefits patients and how the self‐help group evaluation paradigm should be broadened.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Greater social support predicts lower substance use rates after treatment.
“Indeed, greater social support has predicted lower substance use rates after treatment (Broome et al., 2002; Humphreys & Noke, 1997; Humphreys et al., 1995)”
From The Importance of Social Support in Recovery Populations: Toward a Multilevel Understanding (2023) · cites this paper as Humphreys & Noke, 1997
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Social networks as mediators of the effect of Alcoholics Anonymous
Kaskutas, L. A., Bond, J., & Humphreys, K. (2002) · Addiction · doi:10.1046/j.1360-0443.2002.00118.x · Cited by 308 · see citing works
Self-citationHelping other alcoholics in alcoholics anonymous and drinking outcomes: findings from project MATCH.
Pagano, M. E., Friend, K. B., Tonigan, J. S., & Stout, R. L. (2004) · Journal of Studies on Alcohol · doi:10.15288/jsa.2004.65.766 · Cited by 204 · see citing works
Social support and self-efficacy for abstinence: is peer identification an issue?
Majer, J. M., Jason, L. A., Ferrari, J. R., Venable, L. B., & Olson, B. D. (2002) · Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment · doi:10.1016/s0740-5472(02)00261-1 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
The Importance of Social Support in Recovery Populations: Toward a Multilevel Understanding
Islam, M. F., Guerrero, M., Nguyen, R. L., Porcaro, A., Cummings, C., Stevens, E., Kang, A., & Jason, L. A. (2023) · Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly · doi:10.1080/07347324.2023.2181119 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
“…increased treatment retention (Dobkin et al., 2002; Lang & Belenko, 2000), more days abstinent (Longabaugh et al., 2010), greater abstinence self-efficacy (Stevens et al., 2015), and lower substance use rates after treatment (Broome et al., 2002; Humphreys & Noke, 1997; Humphreys et al., 1995).”
Background
- Authors
- Humphreys, K., & Noke, J. M.
- Affiliations
- VA Palo Alto Health Care System (US)
- ORCID
- Humphreys, Keith
- Venue
- American Journal of Community Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1997-02
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-16
- ISSN
- 0091-0562 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-2770
- OpenAlex
- W143042599
- Cited by
- 129
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 2.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Journal of Community Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Homelessness and Social Issues
- Keywords
- 12-step programs, self-help groups, Narcotics Anonymous, addiction treatment, friendship networks, social networks
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aftercare, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Models, Psychological, Surveys and Questionnaires, Self-Help Groups, Social Support, Program Evaluation, Substance-Related Disorders
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
