Abstract
The relation between specific therapy techniques and treatment outcome
was examined for 2 empirically supported treatments for adolescent substance
abuse: individual cognitive-behavioral therapy and
multidimensional family therapy. Participants were 51
inner-city, substance-abusing adolescents receiving
outpatient psychotherapy within a larger randomized trial. One session
per case was evaluated using a 17-item observational measure of
model-specific techniques and therapeutic foci. Exploratory
factor analysis identified 2 subscales, Adolescent Focus and Family
Focus, with strong interrater reliability and internal
consistency. Process-outcome analyses revealed that family
focus, but not adolescent focus, predicted posttreatment
improvement in drug use, externalizing symptoms, and
internalizing symptoms within both study conditions. Implications for
the implementation and dissemination of individual-based and
family-based approaches for adolescent drug use are
discussed.
