Multisystemic family preservation therapy: Preliminary findings from a study of rural and minority serious adolescent offenders

The increase in the number of serious offenses by adolescents, particularly among minority populations, has drawn attention to these difficult-to-treat youths. This article provides preliminary findings from the Diffusion of Multisystemic Family Preservation (MFP) Services Project, which conducted work with rural African-American and White families who have a chronic or violent adolescent offender at imminent risk for incarceration. Analyses assessed the impact of multisystemic therapy on family functioning (parental monitoring, family communications, family structure, etc.) and on the problem behavior of the delinquent adolescent (conduct problems, aggression, and criminal activity). In general, the MFP group demonstrated improvements in amount of problem behavior and mother psychological distress, and in aspects of family functioning following treatment. These results generally replicate the previous successes that MFP has shown in the treatment of samples of serious juvenile offenders in urban areas. V IOLENT CRIME PERPETRATED by adolescents has become one of our society's most severe problems. Juvenile delinquency has generated enormous costs in property loss, human resources, and suffering for its victims. Recent statistics (Federal Bureau of Investigations, 1992) show that juveniles accounted for over 17% of the violent crime arrests in the United States. This is particularly disconcerting because arrest data are underestimates of the rate of delinquent offenses, espe-cially violent ones (Henggeler, Melton