Sibling Outcomes From a Randomized Trial of Evidence-Based Treatments With Substance Abusing Juvenile Offenders

• NCJ Number: 223253
• Journal: Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse Volume: 17 Issue: 3 Dated: 2008 Pages: 11-26
• Author(s): Melisa D. Rowland; Jason E. Chapman; Scott W. Henggeler
• Date Published: 2008
• Length: 16 pages
• Grant Number(s): R01AA122202; R01ZDA; R21 DA17927; P01HS10871
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services; National Institute on Drug Abuse; US Dept of Health and Human Services; Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: For other articles in this Special Issue, see NCJ-223252 and NCJ-223254-58.

Annotation

This study examined the substance-use and delinquency outcomes for the nearest-age siblings of substance-abusing and delinquent adolescents who participated in a randomized clinical trial that evaluated the effectiveness of integrating evidence-based practices into juvenile drug court.

Abstract

Regarding substance use, analyses showed that the evidence-based treatments of adolescent substance abuse (i.e., multisystemic therapy [MST] and contingency management [CM]) were associated with significantly greater reductions in sibling substance use than were the standard community treatments. On the other hand, and in contrast with hypotheses, siblings of youths in the juvenile drug court conditions did not show greater reductions in delinquency than did the siblings of youths under the intervention of family court with community services. Under the MST and CM conditions, parents were taught how to administer random substance-use screens, how to provide consequences and conduct functional analyses based on the results of the screens, and how to assist the adolescent in self-management planning. Perhaps these caregiver skills were transferred to the siblings of the adolescent client either directly or indirectly. It is also possible that the favorable sibling outcomes were produced by treatment-related changes in family functioning and the adolescent client's peers. The sample of 70 siblings averaged 14.4 years old; 50 percent were boys; 71 percent were African-American; and 27 percent were White. Measures of sibling substance use and delinquency were collected at pretreatment, 4 months, 12 months, and 18 months. Multilevel longitudinal models were used to determine whether changes in sibling substance use and delinquency paralleled the treatment effects observed for their substance-abusing delinquent brothers and sisters in the juvenile court study. 2 tables, 1 figure, and 35 references