Effectiveness of Faith-Based Treatment for Substance Addiction in Hong Kong : A Longitudinal Study

Substance addiction has long been a thorny social issue in terms of its high relapse and social and economic costs. Nevertheless, little empirical research has examined the effectiveness of faith-based intervention in inducing the subsequent abstinence of substance addict rehabilitants who have received such services. In this study, core and pertinent predictors of the abstinence of substance addict rehabilitants were the focus of investigation and longitudinal comparison. These factors include religiousness, pro-abstinence self-efficacy, psychological distress , and pro-abstinence social networking established in the treatment services , connoting spiritual, cognitive, psychological, and social domains conducive to abstinence. Results from general linear modeling showed that all these predictors appeared to have significant change effects during the period of reception and release from the treatment services. Notably, Poisson regression analysis showed that the religiousness, pro-abstinence self-efficacy, psychological distress, and pro-abstinence social networking cultivated in treatment services, aggregated from reception of (Wave 1) and release from (Wave-2) treatment services, were significantly predictive of their Wave3 abstinence, which was at least six months after discharge from the treatment services. Some significant predictive effects were more robust than others were. The findings shed light on service improvements and future research directions.