Master's Thesis

Supportive Communication, Avoidance Efficacy, and Offenders' Substance Avoidance

Abstract:
Women offenders with substance use history often face multiple challenges when attempting to desist from reoffending. Theses struggles may be alleviated by supportive communication provided by their probation and parole agents. Through this unique relationship, women offenders who receive informational, emotional, and esteem support from their agents may also have a higher perception of their drug and alcohol avoidance efficacy. Ultimately, this belief may be the underlying mechanism that mediates the relationship between social support and behavioral outcomes. In the Midwest, 206 women on probation or parole were interviewed three separate times over a nine-month period. Analyses revealed that emotional support was the only type of social support that was significantly correlated with drug and alcohol avoidance efficacy, in that the more emotional support a women offender recalled the more drug and alcohol avoidance efficacy they reported. Drug and alcohol avoidance efficacy did not appear to be related to either of the substance avoidance outcomes which were comprised of their self-reported substance abuse and their drug-related violations reported by their agents. The results also suggest that drug and alcohol avoidance efficacy does not mediate the relationship between social support and substance avoidance. These findings highlight the need to continue exploring the processes by which social support provided by agents may impact substance avoidance in women offenders.