With the taxonomy in place, the researchers clustered categories into higher-level themes and meta-themes (see Allen, Poteet, & Burroughs, 1997). Coding Process The next selleck step was the classification of the positive and negative consequences. Each response was reviewed independently by two coders and classified into one of the categories in the coding taxonomy. If disagreement occurred, coders discussed the rationale for their classification and a decision was made regarding the appropriate categorization. Interrater agreement was assessed. The initial overall hit rate (percent agreement) was 70%, with agreement reaching 100% after discussion. Percent agreement is the most commonly utilized method of assessing rater reliability in content analytic studies (Hughes & Garrett, 1990), and levels around .

70 are considered reliable (Neuendorf, 2002). The unit of analysis was defined as a meaningful thought, which could include a word, phrase, sentence, or set of sentences (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Using this process, if a respondent mentioned more than one unique consequence, each thought was coded separately. If the same issue was discussed repeatedly by the same respondent, it was coded only once. Results A total of 350 distinct positive consequences (268 from counselors and 82 from clinical supervisors) and 300 distinct negative consequences (207 from counselors and 93 from clinical supervisors) were identified. Of all the survey respondents, 81% of clinical supervisors and 72% of counselors offered at least one comment regarding the OASAS regulation.

The average number of positive comments made by counselors was 1.20 (SD = 0.49) and the average number of negative comments was also 1.20 (SD = 0.64). Clinical supervisors mentioned an average of 1.21 (SD = 0.58) positive consequences and 1.53 (SD = 0.79) negative consequences. The final coding taxonomy consists of broad categories or meta-themes as well as more specific themes. This provides a fine-grained analysis of the perceived consequences of the OASAS regulation. Separate meta-themes and themes were identified for positive consequences and negative consequences. The meta-themes and subthemes for perceived positive consequences, along with representative comments, are shown in Tables 1 and and22 for counselors and clinical supervisors, respectively.

Tables 3 and and44 lists the meta-themes and themes and provides sample comments for counselors and clinical supervisors, respectively. Table 1. Perceived Positive Consequences of Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services Regulation: Counselors Table 2. Perceived Positive Consequences of Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services Regulation: Clinical Supervisors Drug_discovery Table 3. Perceived Negative Consequences of Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services Regulation: Counselors Table 4 .