News Release

Group interventions for troubled adolescents

Peer-Reviewed Publication

American Psychological Association

Peer influence found crucial for motivating delinquent behaviors

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- It is not always a good idea to group teenagers in trouble with other delinquent teenagers if the goal is to break the bad behaviors, say researchers. Training adolescents to give up destructive behaviors like delinquency, substance abuse and violence seem to fail if several of the adolescents in the group have a tendency toward these behaviors, according to longitudinal research reported in this month's American Psychological Association's American Psychologist.

In their article, "When Interventions Harm: Peer Groups and Problem Behavior," psychologists Thomas J. Dishion, Ph.D., Joan McCord, Ph.D., and Francois Poulin, Ph.D., found that interventions to reduce adolescent problem behavior backfires when peers with similar behavior problems are grouped together in the intervention.

The studies reviewed in this article include the Adolescent Transitions Program (ATP) and Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study Evaluation (CSYS). Both programs show that interventions with peers grouped together usually make the problems worse and can lead to later adjustment difficulties in adulthood.

The ATP study examined 119 high-risk youth's (male and female) smoking and teachers' reports of delinquency behaviors. The teens and their families participated in a parent focus group, a teen focus group, a parent and teen focus group or a placebo group (videotapes and written material of prosocial behavior) for 12 weeks. Tobacco use among the teens in the teen focus group increased after three months, as well as teachers' reports of delinquent behaviors. Both tobacco use and delinquency also increased for those youth in the teen focus group three years after the intervention.

The CSYS study examined how caring guidance would affect the development of both normal and difficult boys in high-crime areas. Two-hundred fifty-three pairs of boys were matched equally on intelligence, age, source of referral, neighborhood crime, home stability, quality of parental discipline, family history of crime and alcoholism, boys' aggression and acceptance of authority. Both groups were considered at equal risk for delinquency. The boys received a mixture of interventions--academic tutoring, medical treatment and general mentoring. The program started when the boys were 10.5 years old and ended when they reached age 16.

An evaluation shortly after the program ended failed to show any differences between the boys in CSYS and boys who were not in the program, said the authors. "None of the boys appeared to benefit from this program and those that went to summer camp more than once did the worst. The most distressing finding was when the CSYS participants reached middle-age 40 years later," said Dr. Dishion. "Those who received the most attention over the longest period of time were the most likely to have (a) died before reaching 35, (b) been convicted of a serious crime or (c) been diagnosed as an alcoholic or psychiatrically impaired.

"We found that aggregating peers, under some circumstances, can produce short- and long-term negative effects on problem behaviors," said Dr. Dishion. "Those young adolescents with moderate levels of delinquency who have deviant friends were much more likely to develop more serious forms of antisocial behavior. This could be happening because the peers are being reinforced for their deviant behavior through laughter, social attention and interest. These youth might also be deriving meaning and values from interacting with their deviant or non-deviant peers which provides further motivation to commit delinquent acts in the future."

Based on the conclusions of the studies reviewed, said the authors, "there is good reason to be cautious and to avoid aggregating young high-risk adolescents into intervention groups. Grouping troubled youth may work better in middle childhood."

Article: "When Interventions Harm: Peer Groups and Problem Behavior," Thomas J. Dishion, Ph.D., and Francois Poulin, Ph.D., Oregon Social Learning and University of Oregon, Joan McCord, Ph.D., Temple University, American Psychologist, Vol 54, No.9.

Full Text available from the APA Public Affairs Office

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Thomas J. Dishion, Ph.D., can be reached at 541-346-1983 or at tomd@tigger.oslc.org and Joan McCord, Ph.D., can be reached at 610-667-6197 or at mccord@vm.temple.edu

The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 159,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 50 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 59 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.


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