NCJ Number
140788
Journal
Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry Volume: 23 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1992) Pages: 183-189
Date Published
1992
Length
7 pages
Annotation
The impact upon adolescent substance use and school performance of providing 6 months of booster sessions following a course of behavioral family therapy was assessed.
Abstract
Four 14- to 16-year-old white and Hispanic males and females participated in 5 to 12 months of behavioral family therapy. After a typical decrease in substance use and academic problems at the end of treatment, the problems of the first subject who received no booster sessions recurred and subsequently worsened during the 8 to 18 months of followup. The other three adolescents, who responded similarly to behavioral family therapy, participated in 6 months of booster sessions which led to a second decrease in substance use and academic problems. This improvement was maintained throughout followup. The study results were consistent across differing adolescent ages, genders, ethnicities, socioeconomic statuses, frequencies of substance use, times of year, and lengths of treatment. These findings suggest that recurrences of problem behaviors following treatment termination could be due to extinction and that booster sessions provide intermittent reinforcement of treatment effects. 2 figures and 21 references