Family preservation using multisystemic therapy: An effective alternative to incarcerating serious juvenile offenders.

Abstract

Multisystemic therapy (MST) delivered through a community mental health center was compared with usual services delivered by a Department of Youth Services in the treatment of 84 serious juvenile offenders and their multiproblem families. Offenders were assigned randomly to treatment conditions. Pretreatment and posttreatment assessment batteries evaluating family relations, peer relations, symptomatology, social competence, and self-reported delinquency were completed by the youth and a parent, and archival records were searched at 59 weeks postreferral to obtain data on rearrest and incarceration. In comparison with youths who received usual services, youths who received MST had fewer arrests and self-reported offenses and spent an average of 10 fewer weeks incarcerated. In addition, families in the MST condition reported increased family cohesion and decreased youth aggression in peer relations. The relative effectiveness of MST was neither moderated by demographic characteristics nor mediated by psychosocial variables.

Risk and promotive effects in the explanation of persistent serious delinquency in boys.

“…Reductions of different risks and increases of different promotive factors in several domains are more likely to reduce serious delinquency than is such a strategy that is based on changes in a single domain (Loeber, Farrington, & Washbush, 1998). Multidomain interventions, therefore, are the most likely to substantially reduce population levels of serious juvenile delinquency (Henggeler, Melton, & Smith, 1992, 1993.…”

Multisystemic therapy: an effective violence prevention approach for serious juvenile offenders

“…Moreover, MST is relatively inexpensive (Henggeler et al, 1992) and is also able to reduce out-of-home placements. Such findings suggest that when contrasted with a clinically-effective family-based treatment, usual services (i.e.…”

Parenting Interventions for Children with Autism Spectrum and Disruptive Behavior Disorders: Opportunities for Cross-Fertilization

“…For example, multi-component interventions for children with DBD, such as Multi-systemic Treatment (Henggeler et al, 1992) and Multi-dimensional Treatment Foster Care (Chamberlain and Reid, 1991) include parent training as a part of a more comprehensive intervention package. In the area of ASD, programs such as Positive Behavior Support, and comprehensive educational programs such as Little Walden, the Denver Model, the Princeton Child Development Institute (see Handleman, 1994, 2000) and Developmental, Individual-Difference, Relationship-Based/Floortime approach (Greenspan and Wieder, 1998) were likely not captured in this literature search.…”