Multisystemic therapy with juvenile sexual offenders : a 10.2-year follow-up to a randomized effectiveness trial

Field of study: Psychology.Charles M. Borduin, Ph.D., Thesis Supervisor."July 2017."[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Multisystemic Therapy for Problem Sexual Behavior (MST-PSB; Borduin, Letourneau, Henggeler, & Swenson, 2009) is a family- and community-based treatment for juvenile sexual offenders that has shown long-term efficacy in two randomized clinical trials (i.e., university-based trials). However, the long-term effectiveness (i.e., a trial conducted in a community setting) of MST-PSB has yet to be evaluated. The present study provided a 10.2-year postbaseline follow-up of 94 juvenile sexual offenders who were randomized to receive either MST-PSB or treatment-as-usual (TAU; cognitive-behavioral group therapy) in an effectiveness trial. This follow-up examined both criminal (i.e., misdemeanor and felony arrests) and noncriminal (i.e., financial and family-related civil suits) outcomes among the former participants. Between-groups analyses indicated that MST-PSB was no more effective than TAU on most criminal and noncriminal outcomes. However, those individuals who received MST-PSB were found to have been fined at a lower rate by the criminal court system than those individuals who received TAU. The results indicate that future research should examine factors (i.e., low therapist adherence to treatment, need for booster sessions, low severity of pretreatment sexual offending) that may have muted the effects of MST-PSB in the present study.Includes bibliographical references (pages 24-28)