Multidimensional treatment foster care for girls in the juvenile justice system: 2-year follow-up of a randomized clinical trail

ABSTRACT Demographic trends indicate that a growing segment of families is exposed to adversity such as poverty, drug use problems, care-giver transitions, and domestic violence. Although these risk processes and the accompanying poor outcomes for children have been well stud-ied, little is known about why some children develop resilience in the face of such adversity, particularly when it is severe enough to invoke child welfare involvement. This paper describes a program of research involv-ing families in the child welfare system. Using a resiliency framework, evidence from 4 randomized clinical trials that included components of the Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care program is presented. Fu-ture directions and next steps are proposed. The number of children in the United States who experience neglect and maltreatment has risen steadily for several decades, with an es-timated 3.3 million referrals to child welfare authorities involving 6 million children during 2005 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2007). It has been estimated that 7 % of all chil-dren and adolescents will have some involvement in the child welfar