Increasing retention of African-American women on welfare in outpatient substance user treatment using low-magnitude incentives.

Contingency management (CM) has been found to be effective in increasing treatment retention in various outpatient substance user treatment populations; however, the costs of established CM protocols often exceed the financial resources of community-based, nonprofit treatment programs. The results of the present study provide initial evidence that a low-magnitude contingency management protocol can be effective in increasing both treatment attendance and completion rates in a sample of 54 urban, African-American, substance-using women on welfare, without creating undue financial or logistical burden on the treatment agency. The study's limitations and future research are noted.