Circumstances, motivation, readiness, and suitability (the CMRS scales): predicting retention in therapeutic community treatment

FRANÇAIS :
Basées sur des considérations cliniques, des échelles ont été développées pour mesurer les perceptions des clients dans quatre domaines en corrélation : circonstances (pressions externes), motivations (potentiel interne), bonne volonté et convenance (CMRS), pour le traitement en communauté thérapeutique. Cet article, le 1er d'une série, rapporte les résultats d'une étude psychométrique sur la fiabilité et la validité du CMRS comme pronostic du maintien en communauté thérapeutic, dans trois cohortes d'admissions consécutives dans un centre de traitement résidentiel à long terme.
ENGLISH :
Based upon clinical consideration, scales were developed measuring client perceptions across four interrelated domains: circonstances (external pressures), motivation (intrinsic pressures), readiness, and suitability (CMRS) for residential TC treatment. This paper, the first in a series, reports findings on the reliability of the CMRS and its validity as a predictor of retention TC treatment in three cohorts of consecutive admission to a long-term residential TC. The main findings show; a) discriminant and factor analyses confirm the face validity of the original four rationale scales; b) scores distribute into four groups, with most clients in the moderately low to moderately high range; c) tow cross validation studies confirm the internal consistency of the scales, and a linear relationship between the separate and total CMRS scores and short-term retention in all three cohorts and long-term retention in tow cohorts. The present psychometric study provides impressive findings on the reliability and validity of the CMRS scales as predictors of retention in long-term TCs. Althrough still considered esperimental, awaiting replicational studies and firm conclusions concerning generalizability, the CMRS holds considerable promise for research, theory, and practice. (Authors'abstract)