Family interventions and adolescent resiliency: The Southwest Texas State High-Risk Youth Program

Abstract

The emergence of social ecology as an orienting perspective in prevention has reinforced attention to the family as a critical influence on adolescent risk and protection. The Southwest Texas High-Risk Youth Program (SWTHRY) addressed the neglect of family as a prevention focus by providing in-home sessions for high-risk families that sought to strengthen family cohesion and adaptability, and thereby promote adolescent resiliency. Based on pre- and post-program administration of carefully constructed measures, the evaluation demonstrates increased family cohesion and strengthened adolescent family bonding among participants. However, participants reported less increase in family adaptability, and adolescent family members showed no statistically significant gain over pre-program scores in dimensions of resiliency other than family bonding, nor in family interaction, family supervision, or ATOD attitudes. Family bonding, the area in which there was significant change in adolescents, was not highly correlated with ATOD use. The study supports the need for comprehensive programming to strengthen adolescent resiliency, and provides further evidence that prevention interventions targeted on affective purposes (e.g., self-esteem, family cohesion) will have limited effects. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.