MULTIFAMILY GROUP-THERAPY - IMPACT ON FAMILY FUNCTIONING AND CHILD-BEHAVIOR

The authors compare the effectiveness of multifamily group therapy (MF GT) with traditional family therapy with abusive and neglectful caregi vers and their children. Positive changes in the family functioning of the MFGT group occurred in areas critical to the reduction of child a buse and neglect, whereas changes in the family functioning of those i n traditional family therapy occurred only in the area of parental sup port. me MFGT group children became significantly more assertive and l ess submissive according to their self-report and, according to their caregivers, showed significantly fewer overall behavior problems and g reater social competence at the end of treatment. Changes in the child ren in the comparison group were not self-reported and did not occur i n the area of social competence. These positive findings argue that ag encies should consider adopting this modality in the treatment of this population and that it should be included as a treatment option in fa mily-centered child welfare services.