NCJ Number
191077
Journal
Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment Volume: 20 Dated: 2001 Pages: 59-68
Date Published
2001
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This paper describes the development of a skill training program for parents of substance-abusing adolescents.
Abstract
The paper discusses the development of a coping skill training program for parents of substance-abusing adolescents and presents preliminary data on the program's effects on parent functioning and adolescent substance use. The behavioral-analytic model of program development was used to sample representative problematic situations experienced by parents of substance-abusing adolescents, obtain an effectiveness-scaling of responses to these situations, and derive alternate forms of a situational role-play measure of parental coping. These situations and scoring guidelines were then used to create the skill training program. Parents of substance-abusing adolescents not in treatment subsequently were randomly assigned in a pilot investigation to either a skill training or delayed treatment condition. Skill training resulted in significant improvement in parental coping skills relative to delayed treatment. Moderate to large improvement in the parents' reports of their own functioning, family communication, and the teens' marijuana use also favored the skill training group. Tables, appendix, references