Program Objectives

BSFT has been revised to respond to the unique strengths and weaknesses minority youth and families in Miami bring to therapy. Several of these risk and protective factors are described below.

Mitigating Risk Factors

Immigration. Many of the families served by the Spanish Family Guidance Center have recently immigrated to the United States. The immigration process creates specific problems that must be addressed in treatment. For example, many families emigrate in stages; it is not uncommon for one parent, usually the mother, to come to the United States alone to establish a place and economic means for the family, and then bring the children to this country. For many families, this process is protracted, and they are separated for many years. Moreover, the reunification process often fails to meet family members' expectations. Children are often disappointed when they arrive in the United States and see that they are living in an impoverished, dangerous, inner-city community. Likewise, parents are often disappointed when they are confronted with angry and emotionally detached children. As a result, treatment often involves attempting to reestablish parent-child bonds and create new family structures that include the parent who was separated from the family.

High conflict. Intense and persistent conflict is a common characteristic of families of youth with behavior problems. High levels of conflict interfere with parents' ability to resolve problems, communicate effectively, nurture, and guide their children. BSFT focuses on assessing the family's conflict resolution style and developing specific interventions to help families negotiate and resolve their differences more effectively.

Inner city. The powerful influence of neighborhoods cannot be ignored when working with inner-city youth and families. In fact, accumulating evidence shows that the positive changes made in family therapy are often overwhelmed by the harsh and deteriorated conditions of the inner city. As a result, the focus of BSFT has expanded from individual families to include the relationship between families and the multiple systems that influence children. Developments in the clinical model have been heavily influenced by the theoretical work of Urie Bronfenbrenner (1977, 1979, 1986) and the groundbreaking clinical work of Scott Henggeler and his colleagues (Henggeler and Borduin, 1990; Henggeler, Melton, and Smith, 1992). In particular, BSFT has expanded to include attention to the relationship between families, on one hand, and schools, peers, juvenile justice agencies, and neighborhoods, on the other.

Enhancing Protective Factors

Extended families. One of the most effective protective factors is the availability of strong extended family networks. It is not uncommon, for example, for treatment to include grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, or even close friends ("fictive kin") who grew up with the child's parents. Although these networks may also be sources of problems for the family, they are frequently sources of strong support. In BSFT, these networks are often used to bolster or serve the important functions of the family. For example, extended family members are frequently engaged in treatment to help monitor the children while parents are at work. At times, members of the extended family or fictive kin assume primary leadership roles in the family when parents are unable or unwilling to perform these tasks. In most instances, BSFT seeks to strengthen social connections by increasing mutual support and decreasing tension and conflict between the family and the extended support network.

Family focus. A second protective factor that has helped minority families in Miami is their strong sense of family unity. Highlighting the needs of the family above the needs of individual family members motivates many adults to participate in interventions. In fact, the Spanish Family Guidance Center initially selected a family approach because of the Cuban (the target population in the 1970's) emphasis on family values. As the Center reached out to many different Hispanic populations in the 1980's and to African Americans in the 1990's, the emphasis on the importance of families remained consistent. Minority groups in the United States generally place great value on their natural reference group (e.g., family, extended network, or tribe).

Brief Strategic Family Therapy	Juvenile Justice Bulletin • April 2000