| Show Behavioral New Three times in one Shauna was arrested by police while running away from her Salt Lake City Frustrated and Shauna's rather finally referred her to a local detention center as JUST a few months she's living at home again under terms of a contract negotiated with her is one facet of a unique new program which is proving to be twice as effective as traditional approaches in dealing with the growing problem of juvenile delinquency in this DEVELOPED by a team of University of Utah the program is known as Behavioral Family Systems It centers around the idea that juvenile delinquents do not represent the problem are part of maladaptive family according to James F. associate professor of psychology and project The researcher says the U program focuses on changing family interaction patterns such as poor communications which arc causing the delinquent r ALEXANDER says a recent study shows that participants in the U program have a repeal offense or recidivism rate of only well below the percent figures recorded by comparison groups involved in traditional programs which are predominant in this country- And equally says was the finding that only 20 percent of younger brothers and sisters of the U participants have become involved in delinquent behavior compared to a percent rate for the other MEANS the program not only reduces but indirectly helps families cope with subsequent stresses as younger siblings reach he Buoyed by the success of the Alexander is hopeful that short-term family intervention may be one solution to the explosion of soft delinquency besetting the IN DEVELOPING the to juvenile Alexander spent hundreds of hours observing families to determine the relationship between interaction and In one key the U researcher videotaped involving 20 adolescents who had been referred to the juvenile detention center and their Families with children described by school teachers as and were also included in the THE EXPERIMENT showed that while normal and delinquent families operate as maladaptive units a much higher level of defensive characterized by judgmental control and strategy and efforts to establish he engaging in defensive communications produce a climate wherein solutions to problems are impossible to achieve and delinquency is Alexander normal families display communications' through genuine information spontaneous and empathic This produces less clearer communication and more productive In another related the U researcher found that parents fn a help their children to make the adjustment from pre-teen to teenager without losing the parent-child AS children in the troubled families begin to assert the parents react negatively and become even more and they are met with increasing resistance and alienation on the part of the if leads to continued deterioration of the family as an effective system and ultimately results in system he THE NEW intervention program is designed to correct these negative systems in a matter of only two to five explains He points out that action is essential because delinquency Is a In the first phase of the a specially trained therapist instructs the troubled family on solution-oriented communications to replace its defensive Effective communication includes brevity long monologues or directness talking through a third presentation of alternatives to suggested and constructive interruptions for the sake of clarification or ONCE THE therapist succeeds in establishing a solid communications the family is introduced to the concept of social in which family members learn to negotiate changes in each other's behavior in return for a change offered by another This type of mutual cooperation generally exists in the interactions of normal families but is missing in disintegrating he IN THE CASE of the therapist discovered that the youth's running away was elicited by constant criticism from her mother who was frightened by an inability to control Shauna and frustrated by her husband's lack of concern for the The mother was actually using Shauna's delinquency to force more familial responsibility upon the explains Through the process of reciprocal social the mother agreed to stop criticizing the daughter if the father would take more interest in the The in agreed to do so if allowed to go out the once a The daughter received more independence by agreeing to live at home and attend school GUIDING these the substituted positive family interactions and contractual agreements for the mother's the father's indifference and the daughter's delinquent the U researcher The U program has already generated considerable national interest and is being incorporated in numerous juvenile mental and professional training |
