BRIEF STRUCTURAL STRATEGIC FAMILY-THERAPY WITH AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND HISPANIC HIGH-RISK YOUTH/

Brief Strategic/Structural Family Therapy was implemented as an indica ted prevention intervention to reduce the likelihood that African Amer ican and Hispanic youth initiated drug use. The intervention wets desi gned to impact two important risk factors for initiation, namely behav ior problems and poor family functioning. One hundred twenty-two youth , 12-14 years of age and exhibiting behavior problems, were assigned w ithin a basic one-group pretest/posttest/follow-up, design. The first important finding was that the prevention intervention was effective i n significantly modifying both high-risk factors, reducing behavior pr oblems [F(2, 120) = 32.92; p < .000] and improving family functioning [F(1, 121) = 41.8; p < .000]. A second important finding was that both high-risk variables targeted were statistically significant predictor s of initiation nine months later. A third important finding was that for a small subset of youth who entered the program already using over all use was significantly decreased [t(22) = 2.11, p < .05]. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.