U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Brief Substance Abuse Treatment with Urban Adolescents: A Translational Research Study

NCJ Number
227136
Journal
Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse Volume: 18 Issue: 2 Dated: 2009 Pages: 193-206
Author(s)
Michael J. Mason; Michael A. Posner
Date Published
2009
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This study tested an adolescent substance abuse treatment protocol's effects in an urban community setting.
Abstract
Findings supported using brief, manualized treatments for diverse, urban adolescents in outpatient community settings. Findings showed that the substance abuse treatment had significant effects on reducing adolescent alcohol use in the community group when weighed against the comparison group, providing support for the translation of the protocol from experimental conditions to a community setting. This brief intervention appeared to have positive effects on alcohol use by urban adolescents in a community setting for up to 6 months past treatment; results can be considered successful in this regard. Noted was that future research should continue to focus on the dissemination of efficacious treatments into community settings while simultaneously testing differing levels of treatment intensity based upon patient needs. Data were collected from 102 adolescents who were treated with a manualized protocol of 5 sessions of Motivational Enhancement Therapy/Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (MET/CBT-5), and followed for 6 months; outcomes were analyzed against a comparison sample of the same number. Both groups were treated with MET/CBT-5. Tables and references