Empirically Supported Family-Based Treatments for Conduct Disorder and Delinquency in Adolescents

• Published in: Journal of marital and family therapy Vol. 38; no. 1; pp. 30 - 58
• Main Authors: Henggeler, Scott W., Sheidow, Ashli J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.01.2012; Wiley-Blackwell
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Addictive behaviors; Adolescent; Adolescent Behavior - psychology; Adolescent Health Services - organization & administration; Adolescents; Antisocial Behavior; Barriers; Behavior; Clinical trials; Combined Modality Therapy; Communication; Community Influence; Community Relations; Conduct disorder; Conduct Disorder - psychology; Conduct Disorder - therapy; Conduct disordered adolescents; Delinquency; Evidence; Evidence Based Practice; Family; Family Counseling; Family Therapy; Family Therapy - organization & administration; Foster Care; Foster Home Care - organization & administration; Humans; Intervention; Juvenile Delinquency - psychology; Juvenile Delinquency - rehabilitation; Juvenile justice; Mental disorders; Mental health care; Outcomes of Treatment; Practice Patterns, Physicians' - organization & administration; Quality Assurance; Quality Assurance, Health Care; Quality Control; Quality of Health Care; Referral; Resistance (Psychology); Secondary Prevention; Self Efficacy; Substance Abuse; Supervision; Sustainability; Teaching Methods; Teenagers; Therapists; Therapy; Treatment Methods; United States; Youth Organizations; United States
• ISSN: 0194-472X; 1752-0606
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-0606.2011.00244.x

Several family‐based treatments of conduct disorder and delinquency in adolescents have emerged as evidence‐based and, in recent years, have been transported to more than 800 community practice settings. These models include multisystemic therapy, functional family therapy, multidimensional treatment foster care, and, to a lesser extent, brief strategic family therapy. In addition to summarizing the theoretical and clinical bases of these treatments, their results in efficacy and effectiveness trials are examined with particular emphasis on any demonstrated capacity to achieve favorable outcomes when implemented by real‐world practitioners in community practice settings. Special attention is also devoted to research on purported mechanisms of change as well as the long‐term sustainability of outcomes achieved by these treatment models. Importantly, we note that the developers of each of the models have developed quality assurance systems to support treatment fidelity and youth and family outcomes; and the developers have formed purveyor organizations to facilitate the large‐scale transport of their respective treatments to community settings nationally and internationally.