Kevin J. Moore

Chaos and Trauma in the Lives of Adolescent Females with Antisocial Behavior and Delinquency

Summary Female adolescents entering the juvenile justice system have complex and serious problems in multiple areas of adjustment. Literature is reviewed on the prevalence and form of antisocial behavior in girls and on the long-term implications of such problems in adolescence. Risk factor characteristics, including family fragmentation, physical and sexual trauma, mental health problems, official arrest and self-report offending histories of a population of girls referred for out-of-home placement because of repeated and chronic juvenile offending are presented. In addition, with the exception of sexual trauma histories, these sample characteristics are compared to a similar sample of chronically offending boys. A treatment approach is described and pilot data are presented on its feasibility. Implications for designing empirically-based, gender-related treatment models are discussed.

Characteristics of residential care for adolescent offenders: A comparison of assumptions and practices in two models

Staff assumptions and program practices in two models of residential care for male adolescent offenders were compared. Group care settings had from 6 to 15 youths in residence and used peer-mediated treatments. Treatment Foster Care settings had one youngster placed in each home and treatments were adult-mediated. Results showed that group care and Treatment Foster Care program models differed on staff assumptions about therapeutic mechanisms of change, and different patterns of daily program practices were found.

A Clinical Model for Parenting Juvenile Offenders: A Comparison of Group Care Versus Family Care

Treatment foster care, an intervention model that offers an alternative to group residential care for serious chronic juvenile offenders is described along with results of a study comparing outcomes for boys who participated in treatment foster care (TFC) and group care (GC) placements. The TFC approach is an extension of the parent-mediated treatments that have previously been shown to be effective in working with children with aggression and antisocial behavior problems. In TFC, community families were recruited and trained to provide placements for study boys. One boy was placed per home. GC boys were placed with 6-15 others with similar delinquency problems. For boys in both conditions, they and their adult caretakers participated in an assessment 3 months after initial placement. The assessment was designed to evaluate key treatment process variables thought to predict later outcomes: the extent to which the boy was well supervised, the level of consistent discipline he received, the extent to which he associated with delinquent peers, and the quality of the boys relationship with his adult caretaker. Results on these variables are presented, as are results on outcomes: subsequent arrests, program completion rates, rates of running away from placement and number of days incarcerated in follow-up. A brief case study is included to illustrate the TFC treatment approach.

Child Study Team Decision Making in Special Education Improving the Process

Child study teams (CSTs) are involved in making decisions about many aspects of the delivery of special services to handicapped students. However, a number of factors inhibit the decision-making process within CSTs. These factors have their origins in the implementation of the team process at the local education agency (LEA) level, the preparation of CST members to participate in team decision making, and in the difficulties encountered in communicating discipline-specific information. To overcome the factors inhibiting effective team decision making, a rationale is established for the development of pandisciplinary tools to assist in interpersonal communication, group decision making, and assessment. Specific examples of such tools are presented, and their relationships to current practices are discussed.

Effects of Video Feedback on Early Coercive Parent–Child Interactions: The Intervening Role of Caregivers’ Relational Schemas

We examined the effect of adding a video feedback intervention component to the assessment feedback session of the Family Check-Up (FCU) intervention (Dishion & Stormshak, 2007). We hypothesized that the addition of video feedback procedures during the FCU feedback at child age 2 would have a positive effect on caregivers’ negative relational schemas of their child, which in turn would mediate reductions in observed coercive caregiver–child interactions assessed at age 5. We observed the caregiver–child interaction videotapes of 79 high-risk families with toddlers exhibiting clinically significant problem behaviors. A quasi-random sample of families was provided with direct feedback on their interactions during the feedback session of the FCU protocol. Path analysis indicated that reviewing and engaging in feedback about videotaped age 2 assessment predicted reduced caregivers’ negative relational schemas of the child at age 3, which acted as an intervening variable on the reduction of observed parent–child coercive interactions recorded at age 5. Video feedback predicted improved family functioning over and above level of engagement in the FCU in subsequent years, indicating the important incremental contribution of using video feedback procedures in early family-based preventive interventions for problem behaviors. Supportive video feedback on coercive family dynamics is an important strategy for promoting caregiver motivation to reduce negative attributions toward the child, which fuel coercive interactions. Our study also contributes to the clinical and research literature concerning coercion theory and effective intervention strategies by identifying a potential mechanism of change.

Treatment Foster Care: Toward Development Of Community-Based Models For Adolescents With Severe Emotional And Behavioral Disorders

Currently, there is a severe lack of midrange community-based treatment models for adolescents with severe emotional and behavioral disorders (SED) (Wells&Whittington, 1990). The Treatment Foster Care (TFC) program has the potential to expand the development of such models for these youths. The aim of TFC is to provide a community-based, relatively nonrestrictive treatment in a setting where youths are not separated from nondisabled peers or isolated from their own families. TFC can be used before youths with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are placed in more restrictive institutional treatment settings. In addition, TFC appears to be a promising model to include when out-of-home and/or out-of-community placements are considered for children and adolescents with EBD. This article presents the program components and research direction of the Oregon Social Learning Centers TFC program for adolescents who have SED and need out-of-home care. The article concludes with a case study of a typical program intervention in an educational setting.

Community-Based Treatment for Adjudicated Delinquents: The Oregon Social Learning Center's “Monitor” Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care Program

SUMMARY The following article outlines an empirically-validated treatment approach for addressing chronic, delinquent behavior in adolescents and their families: Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC). MTFC grew out of evidence for the effectiveness of behavioral parent training approaches and a clinical need for programs to address the behavior of delinquent adolescents who have been found to be beyond parental control. MTFC starts with a focus on the need to return the adolescent to the family and community, and, thus, the program stresses the generalization of treatment effects. Recent replication studies are reviewed that demonstrate the effectiveness, utility, and cost-effectiveness of the MTFC program.

Lessons Learned from Scaling Up the Ecological Approach to Family Interventions and Treatment Program in Middle Schools

The gap between efficacy trials and real-world implementation is often wider than we realize, and is bridged most effectively when careful consideration is given to the (a) qualities of the intervention that facilitate implementation, (b) external environmental influences on implementation success, (c) characteristics of intervention infrastructure that allow for sustainable implementation, and (d) qualities of the recipients that influence the degree and fidelity of implementation (Feldstein & Glasgow, 2008). We discuss the lessons learned while adapting the Ecological Approach to Family Intervention and Treatment (Dishion & Stormshak, 2007), a family-centered preventive intervention model delivered in public middle schools, for large-scale implementation in an effectiveness trial. We also share our experiences related to the challenges that arise when adapting an intervention model for large-scale dissemination and to share insights we have gained through this first-hand experience.

Going to Scale with Family-Centered, School-Based Interventions: Challenges and Future Directions

Although family-centered interventions are known to be effective at reducing risk behavior and increasing academic success, few schools can deliver these interventions successfully. The Positive Family Support (PFS) program was developed based on multiple research studies on the Family Check-Up that have shown the Family Check-Up to be an efficacious prevention model that reduces the risk of substance use, problem behavior, and achievement difficulties. The PFS program was designed to take the Family Check-Up and associated intervention modules to scale in middle schools. The PFS program was implemented in 41 middle schools randomly assigned to receive the training and support associated with the PFS program or middle school as usual. School staff at each middle school delivered the intervention to youths and families. In this chapter, we summarize the key aspects of the PFS program and our approach to implementation. We discuss challenges we faced in the schools, such as budget cuts, staffing, leadership turnover, school climate issues, and fidelity of implementation. Last, we discuss implications of this work for future research and scale-up of family-centered interventions in schools.

Proactive Parent Engagement in Public Schools: Using a Brief Strengths and Needs Assessment in a Multiple-Gating Risk Management Strategy.

This study examined the viability of a brief, parent-reported strengths and needs assessment as the first step in a multiple-gating approach to proactive positive behavior support for families. The Positive Family Support–Strengths and Needs Assessment (PFS-SaNA) was designed to collaboratively engage parents early in the school year in a home–school coordinated Positive Family Support (PFS) system. In this study, we evaluated the reliability and validity of the PFS-SaNA in the context of public middle schools. Findings suggest that the 14-item, unidimensional PFS-SaNA shows convergent validity with teacher ratings of risk. It can be easily and cost-effectively used by school personnel when parents register their children for school at the beginning of each school year.