Marc Galanter, M.D., professor in the Department of Psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine, wrote:
AA’s success rests on its ability to establish and maintain abstinence. This basic and essential accomplishment has tended to detract from the fact that AA is successful in good part because it is a sophisticated psychosocial form of treatment that addresses human psychological vulnerabilities that alcoholics and others share related to problems of self-regulation. This is one example of available research sources on the 12-step process. There are journal articles on how peer mentoring plays important roles in promoting resilience and providing support for at-risk children and adolescents. Further exploration of them will be beneficial in thoroughly planning the essential peer-mentoring component of this new program.
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