Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care as an Intervention for Juvenile Justice Girls in Out-of-Home Care

Abstract

In the last decade, service providers are increasingly aware of the need for interventions to address the unique service challenges of girls referred from the juvenile justice system that male-oriented treatments are not particularly well-suited to address (see Part III). The focus of this chapter is on a family-based intervention, Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC; Chamberlain 2003), that was originally developed for males from juvenile justice as an alternative to group and residential care. During the last 15 years, MTFC was adapted to fit the treatment needs of girls and was tested in two continuously run randomized clinical trials. In this chapter, we present (a) an overview of the MTFC model, focusing on modifications made for girls; (b) a description of two studies focused on evaluating the efficacy of MTFC with girls in the juvenile justice system; and (c) a summary of results from the completed trials demonstrating the efficacy of MTFC as compared to treatment in group/residential care (representing services as usual for girls with severe delinquency referred from the juvenile justice system). A range of results are presented, including re-offending rates, time spent in locked settings, self-reported delinquency, and pregnancy rates. Clinical implications for the treatment and prevention of delinquency in girls are discussed.