As residential treatment programs consider adopting smoke-free policies, treatment providers question whether such policies interfere with patient recruitment and retention. One of these programs has a smoke-free policy, the other does not.
Smoking rates are high for the sample.
Differential dropout rates between programs for key time periods related to tobacco withdrawal were analyzed to assess the potential effect of smoking policy on retention. While analyses showed heavy smokers are more likely than others to leave treatment early, they were likely to leave from either program regardless of smoking policy. As well, verbal expressions of dissatisfaction with smoking policy did not result in drop outs. However, despite its intuitive appeal as an etiologic factor, the absence of psychometrically sound and easily administered measures of learned helplessness has limited the ability of researchers to empirically test its role in the addiction process. Our results indicated that the LHS was internally consistent when administered to this clinical sample and that theoretically meaningful and statistically significant relationships with other measures of psychological functioning were observed.