Dissemination and effectiveness of multisystemic treatment in New Zealand: a benchmarking study.

The transportability of Multisystemic Therapy (MST) for the treatment of juvenile offenders in a community-based context was examined in the current study. Results of this New Zealand study showed that significant pre- to posttreatment improvements occurred on most indicators of ultimate (i.e., offending behavior) and instrumental (i.e., youth compliance, family relations) treatment outcomes. Reductions in offending frequency and severity continued to improve across the 6- and 12-month follow-up intervals. In comparison to benchmarked studies, the current study demonstrated a more successful treatment completion rate. Additionally, overall treatment effect sizes were found to be clinically equivalent with the results of previous MST outcome studies with juvenile offenders and significantly greater than the effect sizes found in the control conditions. The findings of this evaluation add to the growing body of evidence that supports MST as an effective treatment for antisocial youth.

[1]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[2]  R. Mcgee,et al.  DSM-III disorders from age 11 to age 15 years. , 1992, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[3]  S. Henggeler,et al.  Multisystemic Treatment of Antisocial Behavior in Children and Adolescents , 1998 .

[4]  B. Wampold,et al.  Benchmarking the effectiveness of psychotherapy treatment for adult depression in a managed care environment: a preliminary study. , 2008, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[5]  S. Henggeler.  Decreasing effect sizes for effectiveness studies- implications for the transport of evidence-based treatments: comment on curtis, ronan, and borduin (2004). , 2004, Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

[6]  K. Ronan,et al.  Multisystemic treatment: a meta-analysis of outcome studies. , 2004, Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

[7]  W. Hargreaves,et al.  Assessment of client/patient satisfaction: development of a general scale. , 1979, Evaluation and program planning.

[8]  F. Houghton.  Degrees of Deprivation in New Zealand — An Atlas of Socioeconomic Difference: By P. Crampton, C. Salmond, R. Kirkpatrick, R. Scarborough and C. Skelly , 2001 .

[9]  L J Horwood,et al.  Prevalence and comorbidity of DSM-III-R diagnoses in a birth cohort of 15 year olds. , 1993, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[10]  John Hunsley,et al.  Research-informed benchmarks for psychological treatments: Efficacy studies, effectiveness studies, and beyond. , 2007 .

[11]  S. Henggeler,et al.  Multisystemic therapy with violent and chronic juvenile offenders and their families: the role of treatment fidelity in successful dissemination. , 1997, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[12]  R. Hyman.  Quasi-Experimentation: Design and Analysis Issues for Field Settings (Book) , 1982 .

[13]  S. Henggeler,et al.  Family therapy and beyond : a multisystemic approach to treating the behavior problems of children and adolescents , 1990 .

[14]  J. Norcross,et al.  Evidence-based practices in mental health : debate and dialogue on the fundamental questions , 2006 .

[15]  Mark W. Lipsey,et al.  Practical Meta-Analysis , 2000 .

[16]  P. Mrazek,et al.  Effective Treatment for Mental Disorders in Children and Adolescents , 1999, Clinical child and family psychology review.

[17]  Robert A. Williams,et al.  Multisystemic treatment of serious juvenile offenders: long-term prevention of criminality and violence. , 1995, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[18]  R. Zwick,et al.  The client satisfaction questionnaire. Psychometric properties and correlations with service utilization and psychotherapy outcome. , 1982, Evaluation and program planning.

[19]  A. Kazdin,et al.  Family experience of barriers to treatment and premature termination from child therapy. , 1997, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[20]  K. Kelleher,et al.  Therapist Turnover and New Program Sustainability in Mental Health Clinics as a Function of Organizational Culture, Climate, and Service Structure , 2008, Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research.

[21]  J. Weisz,et al.  Identifying and developing empirically supported child and adolescent treatments. , 1998, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[22]  Nathaniel Lichfield,et al.  CHAPTER 1 – Evaluation and Planning , 1975 .

[23]  M. Nock,et al.  Parent Management of Attendance and Adherence in Child and Adolescent Therapy: A Conceptual and Empirical Review , 2005, Clinical child and family psychology review.

[24]  D. Fergusson,et al.  Show me the child at seven: the consequences of conduct problems in childhood for psychosocial functioning in adulthood. , 2005, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[25]  V. R. Weersing,et al.  Benchmarking the effectiveness of psychotherapy: program evaluation as a component of evidence-based practice. , 2005, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[26]  B. Wampold,et al.  Using Clinical Trials to Benchmark Effects Produced in Clinical Practice , 2008 .

[27]  S. Morris,et al.  Distribution of the standardized mean change effect size for meta-analysis on repeated measures. , 2000, The British journal of mathematical and statistical psychology.

[28]  S. Schoenwald,et al.  Transportability of Multisystemic Therapy: Evidence for Multilevel Influences , 2003, Mental health services research.

[29]  S. Henggeler,et al.  Family preservation using multisystemic therapy: an effective alternative to incarcerating serious juvenile offenders. , 1992, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[30]  K. Kelleher,et al.  Building Bridges to Evidence-based Practice: The MacArthur Foundation Child System and Treatment Enhancement Projects (Child STEPs) , 2008, Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research.

[31]  S. Henggeler,et al.  Delinquency in adolescence , 1989 .

[32]  S. Henggeler,et al.  Demographic, individual, and family relationship correlates of serious and repeated crime among adolescents and their siblings. , 1984, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[33]  T. Cook,et al.  Quasi-experimentation: Design & analysis issues for field settings , 1979 .

[34]  S. J. Jang,et al.  A Test of Reciprocal Causal Relationships among Parental Supervision, Affective Ties, and Delinquency , 1997 .