Senior therapeutic community members show greater consistency when affirming peers: evidence of social learning

Abstract

Purpose

Therapeutic communities (TCs) use social learning between peers in treating substance abuse. One mechanism for fostering social learning is peer affirmations for prosocial behavior. The purpose of this study is to use consistency of affirmations as a test of whether social learning does occur.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the results of a social network survey of 50 women in a corrections-based TC, the authors compared affirmations and nonprogrammatic compliments exchanged between residents as two directed social networks. The authors evaluated consistency of judgment using the hubs and authorities algorithm, and tested to see whether more senior residents are more likely to be hubs, thereby showing more consistent judgment.

Findings

More senior residents show greater consistency with peers in program affirmations but not in nonprogrammatic compliments. Hub status in the network of affirmations increases most rapidly in the first 200 days of residence, with slower increases thereafter.

Research limitations/implications

This study is limited to one survey of the women in one TC. The external validity of the findings is therefore unclear. The results suggest that social learning of TC principles and prosocial behavior does occur and that it is not simply a function of popularity among peers. This seems to happen most rapidly in the first 200 days, suggesting that programs much shorter than six months may limit this process.

Originality/value

This is the first use of the hubs and authorities algorithm with a social network drawn from a therapeutic community and the first attempt to verify social learning through a social network analysis.

Citation

Warren, K.L. (2020), "Senior therapeutic community members show greater consistency when affirming peers: evidence of social learning", Therapeutic Communities: The International Journal of Therapeutic Communities, Vol. 41 No. 1, pp. 5-13. https://doi.org/10.1108/TC-11-2019-0014