The effect of social desirability on reported motivation, substance use severity, and treatment attendance

Abstract

Research has not consistently supported an association between stage of change and substance abuse treatment retention. The current study examined whether social desirability response bias could help explain why. Participants (N=200), recruited from an outpatient program, completed the URICA, TREAT, Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC-SDS), and other measures. Number of treatment groups attended was collected from program records. In bivariate analyses, neither the URICA nor the TREAT was related to attendance. However, higher social desirability was strongly associated with lower URICA (but not TREAT) total scores, and in a multivariate path model, a moderately strong association emerged between higher URICA scores and greater treatment attendance when accounting for social desirability. Higher social desirability was also an independent predictor of greater treatment attendance, and was strongly associated with lower ASI Alcohol, Drug, and Psychiatric severity. Results underline a critical problem in measuring motivation and problem severity that has been largely neglected.

Factors associated with false-positive self-reported adherence to antihypertensive drugs

“…Also, acknowledging alcohol and illicit drugs use has been negatively associated with social desirability bias. 11, 12 Thus, the lower risk of being a false positive adherer among current smokers in our study could be explained by their lower propensity to give a socially desirable response. In fact, individuals who admit being a smoker, a socially undesirable behaviour, may be also more likely to admit not taking their medications in the way it was prescribed.…”

“…8 Social desirability bias is more frequent among the elderly, women, minority, less educated individuals, 9, 10 and among those with low socio-economic status. 11, 12 In contrast, social desirability bias is less frequent among individuals with symptoms of anxiety and depression 12, 13 and among alcohol and illicit drugs users. 11, 12 Therefore, it is reasonable to postulate that these factors may be associated with a higher likelihood of a false positive self-report of good adherence.…”

Raising awareness of health care providers about MERSCoV infection in public hospitals in Mecca, Saudi Arabia

“…Our results should be interpreted with caution, particularly with regard infection control practices which were self-reported and not actually observed. Some participants may not express their real thoughts, beliefs and understandings and this may have an effect on their responses (21).…”

Client engagement in psychotherapeutic treatment and associations with client characteristics, therapist characteristics, and treatment factors

“…Clients with greater capacities to address their problems also appear to be more likely to attend. Clients' recognition of their problems (Collins et al, 2012), a more active than avoidant recovery style (Tait et al, 2003), motivation , self-confidence (Bogenschutz et al, 2006;Dale et al, 2011;Simpson et al, 1995), high levels of optimism , greater selfefficacy (Bogenschutz et al, 2006), greater control over social interactions and a positive life direction (Ammerman et al, 2006), higher scores in social desirability (Zemore, 2012), a greater social network (Dale et al, 2011) and contemplative stage of change (Principe et al, 2006) were all associated with greater attendance. Apart from a few discrepant findings (see Table 3, appendix C) it would appear that, in general, clients' sense of need for treatment (Collins et al, 2012) Nearly all the therapist characteristics investigated were unequivocally positively related to attendance.…”