Brief structural/strategic family therapy with African American and Hispanic high-risk youth

Brief Strategic/Structural Family Therapy was implemented as an indicated prevention intervention to reduce the likelihood that African American and Hispanic youth initiated drug use. The intervention was designed to impact 2 important risk factors for initiation, namely behavior problems and poor family functioning. 122 youth, 12–14 years of age and exhibiting behavior problems, were assigned within a basic 1-group pretest/posttest/follow-up design. The 1st important finding was that the prevention intervention was effective in significantly modifying both high-risk factors, reducing behavior problems and improving family functioning. A 2nd important finding was that both high-risk variables targeted were statistically significant predictors of initiation 9 mo later. A 3rd important finding was that for a small subset of youth who entered the program already using, overall use was significantly decreased.