A Trial of Multisystemic Therapy in UK a Statutory Therapeutic Intervention for Young Offenders

The Brandon Centre, London

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Participants Are Male and Female Adolescents 13-16 Years at Risk for Continuing to Commit Criminal Offences.

Treatments: Other: Multisystemic therapy; Other: YOT (usual services)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01713088

MSTBC2012 (Other Identifier)

Details and patient eligibility

About

To evaluate whether Multisystemic Therapy (MST) is more effective in reducing youth offending and out-of-home placement in a large, ethnically diverse, urban U.K. sample than an equally comprehensive management protocol; to determine whether MST leads to broader improvements in youth sociality and in mediators believed to be responsible for change in MST.

Enrollment: 108 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 13 to 16 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• age between 13 and 16 years;
• living in the home of and being brought up by a parent or principal caretaker;
• on a court referral order for treatment or a supervision order of at least 3 months' duration, or, following imprisonment, on license in the community for at least 6 months.

Exclusion criteria

• being a sex offender;
• presented only with substance misuse;
• diagnosed with a psychotic illness or posed a risk to trial personnel;
• incompatible agency involvement (e.g., ongoing care proceedings).

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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108 participants in 2 patient groups

Multisystemic therapy

Experimental group

Description:

MST is a family- and community-based intervention that establishes close contact with families to understand and deal with the factors that cause the young person's antisocial behaviour. The intervention targets the individual's adjustment, family relationships, school functioning and peer group affiliations. Therapists help caretakers develop skills to intervene and operate changes in important domains such as young person's individual adjustment, their family relationships, school functioning, and peer group affiliations.

Treatment:

Other: Multisystemic therapy

YOT (usual services)

Active Comparator group

Description:

YOT intervention consisted of services currently available to young offenders in accordance with the Youth Justice Board National Standards.These services included supporting the young person to re-engage with education, with substance misuse problems and anger management; training them in social problem-solving skills; and programs to decrease vehicle-crime, violent-offending and knife crime. The treatments were delivered by professional social workers, specialist therapists or probation officers.

Treatment:

Other: YOT (usual services)