Partner relationship quality and drug use as predictors of women's substance abuse treatment outcome

This study examined the relationship of relationship quality and partner's drug use on treatment outcomes for women in outpatient drug treatment. The sample consisted of predominately heterosexual couples where the female partner was in drug treatment. Both the partners' perception of relationship quality and the interaction of female client and her partner's perception of relationship quality were significant predictors of one of the outcome variables-the client's posttest report of days of drug use during the previous 30 days. Interestingly, clients reported more days of drug use when their partners reported higher relationship quality. A similar pattern was found with the ASI Drug composite score as the dependent variable except that the interaction term was not significant in that analysis. In addition, partners' relationship quality scores were associated with female clients' treatment completion. A higher proportion of women whose partners reported higher relationship quality failed to complete treatment. Partners' reports of pretest and posttest drug use were not related to women's treatment outcomes.