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Previous research has established the relation between intact family structure and children’s adjustment and subjective well-being. However, the mechanism through which family structure was associated with children’s subjective well-being remained understudied. The current research investigated the sequential mediation effects of maternal attachment, peer attachment and self-efficacy on the relationship between family structure and emerging adults’ subjective well-being. The current sample included 538 college students from a Southeastern province in China, including 193 males and 345 females, with the average age of 19.61 (SD = 1.36). Those from intact families (n = 425, 79%) reported higher levels of subjective well-being than their counterparts from non-intact families (n = 113, 21%). In addition, non-intact family structure was associated with lower levels of maternal attachment, lower levels of peer attachment and general self-efficacy, which in turn was associated with lower levels of subjective well-being. The current findings added to the literature regarding the important role of intact family structure on emerging adults’ subjective well-being. Future prevention and intervention efforts might need to re-establish the security in maternal and peer attachment among youth from non-intact families in order to promote better adjustment and subjective well-being.

Eligible adolescents (12-17 years old) were recruited from a short-term crisis shelter for runaway adolescents in a large Midwestern city. Adolescents (N = 179) were randomly assigned to Ecologically-Based Family Therapy (EBFT, n = 61), the Community Reinforcement Approach (CRA, n = 57), or brief Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET, n = 61) with the primary focus on substance abuse. A significant increase in perceived family cohesion and a significant reduction in perceived family conflict were found among all treatment conditions from baseline to the 24-month follow-up. Adolescents who received EBFT demonstrated more improvement in family cohesion after treatment than those who received CRA or MET, and more reduction in family conflict during treatment than those who received MET.

The current study examined the mediating role of both mother and child interactive behaviors, which granted or undermined autonomy and relatedness, on the bidirectional and longitudinal association between maternal depressive symptoms and child internalizing behaviors, as well as the association between maternal substance use and child externalizing behaviors. Child's sex and mother's drug of choice were explored as potential moderators of the mediation relationship. Data were collected from 183 dyads including treatment-seeking substance using mothers and their children (95 males, aged between 8 and 16 years old). Structural equation modeling analysis showed girls' internalizing and externalizing behaviors at the 3-month follow-up were negatively associated with the same behaviors at the 12-month follow-up through increased relatedness undermining behaviors from their mothers at the 6-month follow-up. Among mothers with opioids as their drug of choice (DOC), children's externalizing behaviors at the 3-month follow-up were positively associated with mothers' substance use at the 12-month follow-up through the elevated levels of mothers' relatedness undermining behaviors at the 6-month follow-up. Among mothers with alcohol as their DOC, maternal depressive symptoms at the 3-month follow-up were positively related to children's internalizing behaviors at the 12-month follow-up through reduced relatedness undermining behaviors exhibited by mothers at the 6-month follow-up. To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to attempt to unravel these longitudinal and bidirectional influences as well as the moderated mediation pathways among families with a substance using mothers.

The current study sought to identify information that may inform treatment providers regarding services for, and engagement of, substance-abusing homeless mothers. Shelter-recruited, substance-abusing homeless mothers' desires for treatment in several commonly reported problem areas including substance use, parenting, depressive symptoms/mood, physical health, and childhood abuse history were assessed. The correspondence between mother's desire for treatment and self-reported problem severity was also examined. The majority of mothers reported at least some desire (versus no desire at all) for assistance with substance use, depressive symptoms/mood, and parenting. A series of independent-sample t tests and chi-square tests showed that mothers indicating any treatment desire in the areas of substance use, depressive symptoms/mood, health problems, and sexual abuse also reported higher levels of severity in the corresponding problem areas. The findings imply that psychosocial treatment should be available to all homeless mothers entering the shelter system, especially given that problem severity appears to be a fair indicator of interest in treatment.

Shelter-recruited adolescents are known to have high rates of substance abuse and co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. Many studies have documented these mental health concerns, but only a small number of studies have tested interventions that may be useful for ameliorating these vulnerabilities. The current study compared three empirically supported psychotherapy interventions, Motivational Interviewing (MI), the Community Reinforcement Approach (CRA), and Ecologically-Based Family Therapy (EBFT) with 179 substance abusing runaway adolescents (47 % female, 74 % minority) and their primary caretaker recruited through a Midwestern runaway crisis shelter. Examining both child and primary caretaker reports, each treatment was associated with significant reductions in internalizing and externalizing behaviors to 24 months post-baseline. However, the trajectory of change differed among the treatments. Adolescents receiving MI showed a quicker reduction in internalizing and externalizing behaviors but also a quicker increase in these behaviors compared to adolescents receiving EBFT, who continued to evidence improvements to 24 months. The findings provide support for continued evaluation of these treatments for use with this vulnerable population of adolescents.

This study examined the degree of disagreement between runaway adolescents and their primary caretakers, defined as informant discrepancies, on their view of their family. How these discrepancies changed over time and whether family therapy or individual therapy could impact that change were also explored. The current sample (N = 179 dyads) included adolescent substance abusers residing in a runaway shelter and their primary caretakers. Adolescent gender was examined as a correlate of change, and treatment attendance was controlled. The intraclass correlation coefficient was used to measure discrepancies between the individuals within a dyad. Results showed that among those receiving family therapy, but not individual therapy, informant discrepancies decreased significantly over time. Additionally, dyads with a male adolescent showed a significantly slower rate of improvement in discrepancy scores across time compared with dyads with a female adolescent. Previous research indicates that lower levels of discrepant perceptions are associated with better individual and relationship functioning. Therefore, this study’s findings support family therapy as superior to individual therapy for addressing parent–child discrepancies––possibly through its focus on improving family communication, perspective taking, and understanding.

Follow-up rates reported among longitudinal studies that focus on runaway adolescents and their families are relatively low. Identifying factors associated with follow-up completion might be useful for improving follow-up rates and therefore study validity. The present study explored how individual- and family-level constructs, as well as research project activities, influence the follow-up completion rate among runaway adolescents (N = 140) and their primary caregiver. Results showed that follow-up completion rates decreased as the number of research assistants (RA) assigned to each case increased and as participants’ address changes increased. Additionally, among adolescents, more frequent alcohol use was associated with lower follow-up rates. The current findings suggest that researchers should (1) design their research so that one RA is assigned to each specific case, and (2) adjust their retention strategies to account for the differences in follow-up rates based upon the participants’ drug of choice and residential stability.

While research on homeless adolescents and young adults evidencing substance use disorder is increasing, there is a dearth of information regarding effective interventions, and more research is needed to guide those who serve this population. The current study builds upon prior research showing promising findings of the community reinforcement approach (CRA) (Slesnick, Prestopnik, Meyers, & Glassman, 2007). Homeless adolescents and young adults between the ages of 14 to 20 years were randomized to one of three theoretically distinct interventions: (1) CRA (n = 93), (2) motivational enhancement therapy (MET, n = 86), or (3) case management (CM, n = 91). The relative effectiveness of these interventions was evaluated at 3, 6, and 12 months post-baseline. Findings indicated that substance use and associated problems were significantly reduced in all three interventions across time. Several moderating effects were found, especially for sex and history of childhood abuse. Findings show little evidence of superiority or inferiority of the three interventions and suggest that drop-in centers have choices for addressing the range of problems that these adolescents and young adults face.

This study reports secondary outcome findings on depressive symptoms from a randomized clinical trial testing three interventions for substance-abusing runaway adolescents. In particular, the effect of a family systems therapy, Ecologically Based Family Therapy (EBFT), and two individual therapies, the Community Reinforcement Approach (CRA) and Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET), on adolescent and primary caretaker (PC) depressive symptoms were compared. Findings showed that youth's depressive symptoms were significantly reduced in each treatment to 2 years postbaseline. However, the trajectory of change differed across treatments, with adolescents receiving MET showing a more rapid reduction in depressive symptoms but a quicker increase in symptoms compared with adolescents receiving EBFT. PCs receiving EBFT showed a statistically significant decline in depressive symptoms, but this was not observed for the CRA and MET conditions. These findings can be interpreted to favor EBFT, although future research is needed to test training and implementation strategies for family systems therapies in community-based runaway shelters.

Given high levels of health and psychological costs associated with the family disruption of homelessness, identifying predictors of runaway and homeless episodes is an important goal. The current study followed 179 substance abusing, shelter-recruited adolescents who participated in a randomized clinical trial. Predictors of runaway and homeless episodes were examined over a two year period. Results from the hierarchical linear modeling analysis showed that family cohesion and substance use, but not family conflict or depressive symptoms, delinquency, or school enrollment predicted future runaway and homeless episodes. Findings suggest that increasing family support, care and connection and reducing substance use are important targets of intervention efforts in preventing future runaway and homeless episodes amongst a high risk sample of adolescents.