The differential effectiveness of three models of adolescent drug abuse treatment was assessed in a controlled outcome study. Family Systems Therapy (FST) was compared to Adolescent Group Therapy (AGT) and Family drug Educations (FDE). FST appeared to be more effective in stopping adolescent drug abuse than AGT or FDE, registering twice as many apparently drug‐free clients than FDE and three times as many as AGT. However, a number of possible confounds make this conclusion tentative. No tretment approach was superior in altering patterns of family functioning although all three conditions improved perceived intergenerational communication.

This study reports the findings of a multisite randomized trial evaluating the separate and combined effects of 2 school-based approaches to reduce violence among early adolescents. A total of 37 schools at 4 sites were randomized to 4 conditions: (1) a universal intervention that involved implementing a student curriculum and teacher training with 6th-grade students and teachers, (2) a selective intervention in which a family intervention was implemented with a subset of 6th-grade students exhibiting high levels of aggression and social influence, (3) a combined intervention condition, and (4) a no-intervention control condition. Analyses of multiple waves of data from 2 cohorts of students at each school (N = 5,581) within the grade targeted by the interventions revealed a complex pattern. There was some evidence to suggest that the universal intervention was associated with increases in aggression and reductions in victimization; however, these effects were moderated by preintervention risk. In contrast, the selective intervention was associated with decreases in aggression but no changes in victimization. These findings have important implications for efforts to develop effective violence prevention programs. Keywordsaggression; violence prevention; middle school; adolescent problem behavior Although important progress has been made toward identifying promising approaches to youth violence prevention (e.g., U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], 2001;Wilson, Lipsey, & Derzon, 2003), further work is needed to identify the most effective strategies for use in specific settings (Farrell & Camou, 2006). Schools are frequently the setting in which violence prevention programs are implemented because they have several NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript characteristics that make them a particularly appropriate focus for such efforts (Farrell, Meyer, Kung, & Sullivan, 2001;Gottfredson, 2001). Schools are among the primary contexts for social development and are frequently the setting in which interpersonal conflicts occur (Carlo, Fabes, Laible, & Kupanoff, 1999). Schools also provide an efficient way to reach a large number of youths, and because they represent stable institutions they have great potential for continuity.A critical question facing developers of school-based programs concerns the most effective focus of prevention resources. Most school-based violence prevention programs take one of two forms: universal interventions that include all students or selective interventions that focus on a subset of high-risk students. Universal interventions can play an important role in reducing aggression by teaching students emotional and cognitive skills that support nonviolent behavior and reducing peer influences that support violence (Multisite Violence Prevention Project [MVPP], 2004b). Furthermore, schoolwide prevention programs that involve teachers and school administrators may lead to increased reinforcement of program goals and modeling of appropri...

This investigation examined variables related to family adaptation to brain injury that may contribute to a more functional level of adaptation for family members using the family adjustment and adaptation response model. Participants were 123 family members of 65 brain-injured patients at the Shepherd Center, a rehabilitation hospital treating people with spinal cord injury, acquired brain injury, multiple sclerosis, and other neuromuscular problems. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to aggregate family data. Results of the test of this model indicate that a number of variables influenced adaptation, including increased financial resources, social support, reframing, and coping skills. Many factors combined to increase the level of distress for these families, including concerns with insurance and emotional and behavioral changes exhibited by the patient. Conclusions drawn from this study are that (a) family members of brain-injured patients experienced significantly more psychological distress when compared with nonpatient norms and (b) these family members were vulnerable to disruption in family functioning. Directions for future research are discussed.

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Psychological trauma is a major public-health problem, and trauma victims frequently turn to the Internet for medical information related to trauma. The Internet has many advantages for trauma victims, including low cost, privacy, use of access, and reduced direct social interactions. However, there are no regulations on what is posted on the Internet, or by whom, and little is known about the quality of information currently available related to the topic of psychological trauma. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of Internet sites related to the topic of psychological trauma. The top 20 hits for searches on Google, AllTheWeb, and Yahoo were tabulated, using search words of 'psychological trauma', 'stress', 'PTSD', and 'trauma'. From these searches, a list of 94 unique unsponsored hits that represented accessible websites was generated. Fourteen sites were unrelated or only peripherally related, and eight were related but were not comprehensively evaluated because they represented brochures, online book sales, etc. Seventy-two websites underwent evaluation of the content, design, disclosure, ease of use, and other factors based on published guidelines for medical information sites. Forty-two per cent of sites had inaccurate information, 82% did not provide a source of their information, and 41% did not use a mental-health professional in the development of the content. Ratings of content (e.g. accuracy, reliability, etc.) were 4 (2 SD) on a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 being the best. There were similar ratings for the other variables assessed. These findings suggest that although abundant, websites providing information about psychological trauma are often not useful, and can sometimes provide inaccurate and potentially harmful information to consumers of medical information.