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Changes in Family Relationships among Substance Abusing Runaway Adolescents: A Comparison between Family and Individual Therapies
Author(s) -
Guo Xiamei,
Slesnick Natasha,
Feng Xin
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of marital and family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.868
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1752-0606
pISSN - 0194-472X
DOI - 10.1111/jmft.12128
Subject(s) - family therapy , family conflict , substance use , psychology , substance abuse , clinical psychology , psychiatry , medicine , developmental psychology
Eligible adolescents (12–17 years old) were recruited from a short‐term crisis shelter for runaway adolescents in a large Midwestern city. Adolescents ( N = 179) were randomly assigned to Ecologically‐Based Family Therapy ( EBFT , n = 61), the Community Reinforcement Approach ( CRA , n = 57), or brief Motivational Enhancement Therapy ( MET , n = 61) with the primary focus on substance abuse. A significant increase in perceived family cohesion and a significant reduction in perceived family conflict were found among all treatment conditions from baseline to the 24‐month follow‐up. Adolescents who received EBFT demonstrated more improvement in family cohesion after treatment than those who received CRA or MET , and more reduction in family conflict during treatment than those who received MET .