Despite the efficacy of family-based interventions for improving outcomes for adolescent behavior problems such as substance use, engaging and retaining whole families in treatment is one of the greatest challenges therapists confront. This article illustrates how the Brief Strategic Family Therapy® (BSFT®) model, a family-based, empirically validated intervention designed to treat children and adolescents’ problem behaviors, can be used to increase engagement, improve retention, and bring about positive outcomes for families. Research evidence for efficacy and effectiveness is also presented.
Changes in within-session family interaction patterns were examined over the course of Brief Strategic Family Therapy with Hispanic adolescents referred for treatment of behavior problems. Family structure and conflict resolution style were examined at four points in therapy. Participants were 4 Hispanic adolescents and their families that received a full dose of family therapy. Families were selected from a large sample of families that participated in a randomized study. Two cases that showed significant improvement and two cases that showed deterioration on measures of conduct disorder completed at pre-and post-treatment were randomly selected from the larger pool of cases. In-session results demonstrated a linear trend of improvement in family interaction in successful outcome cases, although in unsuccessful outcomes family interactions did not improve or worsened throughout therapy. Findings support the importance of examining in-session therapy processes to shed light on how family therapy is efficacious with behavior problem Hispanic youth.
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