Client Impressions About Alcoholics Anonymous

Project MATCH client impressions about Alcoholics Anonymous: Measurement issues and relationship to treatment outcome.

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is the most popular mutual-help program for individuals with alcohol-related problems, and most treatment programs encourage AA attendance during and after treatment.

As part of a larger study (Project MATCH), this study examined aftercare and outpatient client subjective impressions about AA.

As predicted, client ratings of the helpfulness of AA, the importance of encouragement to attend AA, spiritual experiences, and God consciousness were positively related with AA meeting attendance and practicing of prescribed AA-related behaviors, such as having a sponsor.

Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that commitment to AA-related practices, AA meeting attendance, and subjective impressions about AA formed a single latent construct depicting how individuals experience AA.

Increased engagement in AA-related practices and beliefs was predictive of statistically significantly more abstinence and less intense drinking when drinking occurred.