Doctoral Capstone Report: Understanding Cravings and Triggers in Students Attending a Recovery High School in a COVID-19 Era

Abstract

The adolescent population continues to be one of the most vulnerable at-risk populations for developing a substance use disorder (SUD), however only 0.3% of diagnosed adolescents receive the necessary treatment to begin the journey of recovery (National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, 2020). To date, there is limited literature surrounding the real-life barriers to recovery individuals face daily. Accurately understanding recovery in the context of the daily lived experience would assist in person-centered evaluation and intervention. By utilizing a daily data collection method, ecological momentary assessment (EMA), researchers are able to identify and assess barriers to recovery in a timelier manner. The identified objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of using EMA as a data collection method and how well it works to richly understand the lived experiences of adolescents in recovery and inform effective supports for this population.