Multisystemic therapy: Bridging the gap between university- and community-based treatment.

This article proposes, within the context of discouraging findings from child psychotherapy literatures, 2 theory- and empirically based explanations for the emergent success of multisystemic therapy when implemented in community settings as well as for MST's favorable long-term effects on serious antisocial behavior in adolescents.

Abstract

This article proposes, within the context of discouraging findings from child psychotherapy literatures, 2 theory- and empirically based explanations for the emergent success of multisystemic therapy (MST) when implemented in community settings as well as for MST's favorable long-term effects on serious antisocial behavior in adolescents. First, MST may have demonstrated success in community settings because it explicitly bridges the gap between university-based psychotherapy studies and their community-based counterparts (J. R. Weisz & B. Weiss, 1993). Second, although MST is based on a social-ecological model of behavior, its favorable cross-setting and temporal outcomes may exemplify the successful use of several active behavioral generalization strategies.