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Cited by 104Crime Patterns and InterventionsChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentPsychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending

An independent randomized clinical trial of multisystemic therapy with non-court-referred adolescents with serious conduct problems

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Weiss, Bahr, Han, Susan, Harris, Vicki, Catron, Thomas, Ngo, Victoria K., Caron, Annalise, Gallop, Robert, Guth, Carol·2013·Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
DOI 10.1037/a0033928PMC PMC3830634
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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Adolescent conduct problems exact serious social as well as personal costs, and effective treatments are essential. One of the most widely disseminated and effective programs for the treatment of serious conduct problems in adolescents is Multisystemic Therapy (MST). However, most evaluations of MST have involved the developers of MST. The purpose of the present study was to conduct an independent evaluation of MST, with non-court-referred adolescents with conduct problems. METHOD: Participants were 164 adolescents ages 11-18 years who were recruited from self-contained behavior intervention classrooms in public schools. Adolescents and their families were randomly assigned to receive MST or services as usual. Outcome measures assessed conduct problems, school functioning, and court records of criminal behavior. Participants were followed for 18 months after baseline using parent, adolescent, and teacher reports; arrest data were collected for 2.5 years postbaseline. RESULTS: Two of 4 primary outcome measures focused on externalizing problems showed significant treatment effects favoring MST. Several secondary and intervention targets pertaining to family functioning and parent psychopathology showed positive effects of MST, and no negative effects were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Results provide some further support for the effectiveness of MST, although smaller effect sizes than previous studies also suggest the complexity of successful dissemination, particularly to non-court-referred populations.

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  • The review identified few primary prevention studies which did not demonstrate impact, suggesting publication bias, which undermines the ability to assess unsuccessful interventions.

    “Finally, we identified few primary prevention studies which did not demonstrate impact25,34,36 suggesting publication bias, which undermines our ability to assess unsuccessful interventions.”

    From Community investment interventions as a means for decarceration: A scoping review (2022) · cites this paper as [36]

    The Discussion (Primary intervention outcomes; page unavailable) reports no significant effect on teacher-reported problems or arrests, but significant improvement on two other primary outcomes. The study enrolled adolescents who already had serious conduct problems (Discussion, Secondary intervention outcomes; page unavailable), so it does not establish an unsuccessful primary-prevention study. The publication-bias suggestion is the citing authors’ inference, not a finding attributed to this trial. (LLM, conf=0.82)

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Authors
Weiss, B., Han, S., Harris, V., Catron, T., Ngo, V. K., Caron, A., Gallop, R., & Guth, C.
Affiliations
  • Vanderbilt University (US)
  • RAND Corporation (US)
  • West Chester University (US)
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
2013
Volume
81
Issue
6
Pages
1027-1039
ISSN
  • 0022-006X (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-2117
DOI
10.1037/a0033928
PMC
PMC3830634
OpenAlex
W1976803178
Cited by
104
References
34
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 42 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 1
FWCI
26.84
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institutes of Health (R01-MH58275; T32-MH070329)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime Patterns and Interventions
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending
Keywords
multisystemic therapy, adolescent conduct problems, independent evaluation, school-based behavior intervention, externalizing problems, family functioning, parental psychopathology, criminal behavior, treatment dissemination, school functioning
MeSH terms
Achievement, Adolescent, Adult, Behavior Therapy, Child, Combined Modality Therapy, Education, Nonprofessional, Education, Special, Family Therapy, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Inservice Training, Juvenile Delinquency, Male, Middle Aged, Parent-Child Relations, Patient Care Team, Personality Assessment, Referral and Consultation, Social Adjustment, Software Design, United States, Conduct Disorder

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