# Jail Inmates' Self-Control and Post-Release Substance Misuse

> **NIH NIH F31** · GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $34,506

## Abstract

Jail Inmates’ Self-Control and Post-Release Substance Misuse
Project Summary
Decades of research have repeatedly linked deficits in self-control to substance misuse and criminal behavior.
Theory and research across fields have historically treated self-control as a unitary dimension. However,
recent theoretical and empirical developments suggest two distinct components of self-control exist – inhibitory
self-control and initiatory/persistent self-control (de Ridder, et al., 2011; Hoyle & Davisson, 2016). Succinctly,
self-control by inhibition is to not do something – to override impulses toward attractive but goal-inconsistent
behaviors. Self-control by initiation/persistence is required to do something – to engage in and persist at goal-
consistent behaviors, despite a pull toward inaction due to setbacks or barriers. The proposed project will
examine whether there are advantages in decomposing self-control. Results would set the stage for
developing more targeted and effective self-control interventions in a high-risk, underserved population.
Drawing on two longitudinal data sets of inmates followed up to 10 years (n=508) and 3 years (n=213) post-
release, the proposed project will address the following questions:
(1) Do the two components of self-control – inhibitory self-control and initiatory/persistent self-control –
 differentially predict post-release substance misuse, crime, and positive community adjustment?
(2) What is the causal nature of the link between self-control and substance misuse? I will examine whether
 changes in particular forms of self-control lead to changes in substance misuse, vice versa, or both?
(3) How, and for whom, do the components of self-control change during incarceration and post-release?
(4) To what degree do these findings generalize across race and gender?
Results will serve as the foundation for developing more targeted domain-specific self-control interventions and
for prioritizing specific treatments to individualized self-control needs and post-release challenges (e.g., risk
areas hinging on inhibitory vs. initiatory/persistent self-control or both).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9910543
- **Project number:** 1F31DA048589-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Shannon Willis Schrader
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $34,506
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-06-01 → 2021-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9910543

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9910543, Jail Inmates' Self-Control and Post-Release Substance Misuse (1F31DA048589-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9910543. Licensed CC0.

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