Objective:

To examine differences in psychosocial outcomes, including addiction severity and mental health symptoms, between individual and group-based psychosocial programs for substance-using probationers.

Key Findings:

• No significant difference in addiction severity between individual and group programs, with small-to-moderate effect sizes.
• Group program participants reported higher love of life, sustained hope, cognitive flexibility, perceived social support, and self-efficacy.
• Group program participants had lower depression and anxiety scores compared to individual program participants.

Interpretation:

Group-based psychosocial interventions may lead to more favorable psychosocial outcomes for substance-using probationers, suggesting a need for prioritizing group formats in treatment.

Limitations:

• Cross-sectional design limits causal inferences, potentially affecting the interpretation of results.
• Absence of baseline assessments may impact the validity of the findings.
• Potential selection bias in participant recruitment could influence the generalizability of the results.

Conclusion:

Group-based programs are associated with better psychosocial profiles among probationers, indicating the need for further longitudinal and randomized studies to explore these relationships and their implications.