Youth and parental perspectives on the functional family therapy programme

Abstract

Assessing clients' satisfaction with family therapy interventions has important practical and theoretical implications. This article presents findings on client satisfaction after participating in functional family therapy (FFT), which addresses youths at risk of delinquency behaviour and communication problems in the family. Qualitative interviews and quantitative research methods are employed to compare programme perceptions with standardized therapeutic outcomes. The data include a parent or guardian interview, a youth interview, a services tracking form and the initial and discharge strengths and needs assessment (SNA). We observed high levels of satisfaction with FFT, yet satisfaction with family therapy and therapists was higher among parents. Parents uniformly indicated satisfaction on six Likert scale items while the youths were satisfied only on one. We found five significant differences between the parents' and youths' responses. The parents reported greater trust in therapists, more engagement in family therapy and more positive perception of changes in family dynamics following the intervention. The two scales, satisfaction with the programme and satisfaction with the therapists, were correlated only for parents. However, both scales were correlated with some items on our outcome variable: the changes in the SNA, for parents and young people. We assessed predictors of satisfaction and found that satisfaction with therapy was inversely related to the number of sessions for youth. For parents, the only common predictor of both satisfaction with the therapist and satisfaction with the programme were the changes on the caregivers' strengths scale. The answers to the open-ended questions indicated that, although both parents and adolescents valued the improvements in communication patterns, the youth seemed to be especially attuned to changes in this area. Researchers should continue assessing satisfaction with family therapy and study the relationship a Assistant Professor, John between satisfaction and the intervention's outcomes. Our findings suggest also the importance of including youth in assessing satisfaction.Practitioner points • Assessing feedback from both, parents and youth, during and after an intervention can assist in providing more effective treatment. • Youth might benefit from a shorter therapy and those who are mandated should be given more voice in an intervention. • The strengths and needs assessment is a clinical tool that is useful in evaluating the intervention's outcomes. • Functional family therapy improves communication skills among family members.

Therapist implementation and parent experiences of the three phases of Functional Family Therapy

“…In relation to FFT in particular, Celinska et al . () found that parents and adolescents viewed improvements in communication among family members to be the most helpful aspect of therapy. Improvements in parental self‐efficacy and family communication may thus be important components of successful family‐based therapy.…”

“…() interviewed parents of adolescents to identify themes relevant to their overall experience of the family therapy process. In relation to FFT, only one study has used qualitative methods to examine family experiences of therapy (Celinska et al ., ). However, this study similarly probed for participants’ satisfaction with the overall experience of FFT rather than those experiences that were characteristic of specific model practices.…”

Barriers and Facilitators to Implementing Functional Family Therapy in a Community Setting: Client and Practitioner Perspectives

“…In the only study to date to capture the views of intervention recipients, Celinska and colleagues (Celinska, Cheng, & Virgil, ) focused on family members’ levels of satisfaction with FFT. Interestingly, both adolescents and parents reported satisfaction with the intervention, but parents were shown to be more satisfied than their children.…”

“…Successful transport of an efficacious intervention to a service delivery context is contingent upon the intervention and the implementation process being feasible and acceptable to all stakeholders, including the workforce involved in its delivery and service users (Fixsen, Blase, Duda, Naoom, & Van Dyke, ; Weisz & Kazdin, ). Moreover, as demonstrated in the study undertaken by Celinska (Celinska et al., ), there is evidence that different groups of stakeholders may present different accounts when asked to share their views on a particular intervention, and these differences may be polarized when comparing the views of those who deliver interventions with those in receipt of them.…”

Parent and Youth Perspectives and Retention in Functional Family Therapy

“…Previous research considering the experience of therapy in FFT from the perspective of families who have completed therapy provides further insight into processes relating to retention in FFT. Findings from qualitative research with therapy completers reveal barriers to satisfaction including location of sessions and difficulties with openness in a family setting (Celinska et al, 2015). In addition, therapy completers highlight important characteristics in implementation of FFT including trust and honesty (i.e., feeling of respect for individual needs and being able to speak openly), motivation for change, support networks, and psychosocial influences (McPherson et al, 2017).…”