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Impact of a Family Empowerment Intervention on Juvenile Offender Heavy Drinking: A Latent Growth Model Analysis

NCJ Number
197397
Journal
Substance Use and Misuse Volume: 37 Issue: 11 Dated: September 2002 Pages: 1359-1390
Author(s)
Richard Dembo Ph.D.; Werner Wothke Ph.D.; Stephen Livingston B.A.; James Schmeidler Ph.D.
Date Published
September 2002
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the positive effects of Family Empowerment Intervention on juvenile drinking.
Abstract
Focusing on heavy drinking among juveniles, this article compares the effects of Family Empowerment Intervention (FEI) and Extended Services Intervention (ESI). Following a discussion of what the authors detail as an “unacceptably high level” of alcohol use among youths in the United States, the authors describe the youth support project (YSP) instituted as part of a National Institute on Drug Abuse funded study. The YSP implemented a 10-week systems oriented and structural approach to family preservation through proposing the home-based FEI in which families participated in three hour-long family meetings per week for 10 weeks. ESI group families maintained contact with YSP through monthly telephone calls. Families were assigned to either FEI or ESI groups, and for the purposes of this study, the authors completed initial interviews with 315 youths processed at the Hillsborough County Juvenile Assessment Center from September 1, 1994, through January 31, 1998. Comparing 278 reinterviewed youths a year later, 170 youths reinterviewed 2 years later, and 91 youths reinterviewed 3 years later, the authors found that while there was no significant difference between youths assigned to FEIs and ESI, the reported frequency of getting very high or very drunk declined over time for the FEI completers than for non-completers, indicting the positive impact of FEI services. Figures, tables, appendix, and references