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The crude divorce rate has been increasing steadily for over a decade in China. Consequently, more and more children have to face the challenge of growing up in single parent families. The current study investigated the mediating effects of problem-oriented and emotion-oriented coping on the relationship between parental attachment and psychological resilience among a sample of Chinese adolescents from single parent families and intact families. Participants were 975 high school students (44.30% males; aged 15–19 years, M = 16.32 years, SD = 0.74), 871 from intact families and 104 from single parent families. Structural equation modeling showed that security in maternal attachment was positively associated with resilience through the indirect effect of reduced emotion-oriented coping among adolescents from single parent families. Among adolescents from intact families, security in maternal attachment was both directly associated with resilience and indirectly through enhanced problem-oriented and reduced emotion-oriented coping. Security in paternal attachment was associated with resilience both directly and indirectly through enhanced problem-oriented coping as well among those from intact families. Female adolescents exhibited significantly lower levels of resilience than male adolescents did regardless of the marital status of their parents. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The current study sought to test hard drug use outcomes for youth receiving a strengths-based outreach and advocacy intervention that linked youth to either a shelter or a drop-in center.Homeless youth (14-24 years old) were engaged by research assistants (RAs) at soup kitchens, parks, libraries, and other locations that homeless youth were known to frequent. Youth were randomly assigned to receive six months of advocacy that focused on linking youth to a drop-in center (n = 40) or to a crisis shelter (n = 39). Follow-up assessments were conducted at 3, 6, and 9 months post-baseline. Hard drug use over time was the main outcome. Intervention condition and service connection were used as predictors for the baseline level and the slope of change in hard drug use over time. Data analysis was conducted with Bernoulli Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling in HLM7.The current study found that those who were in the drop-in linkage condition exhibited a greater reduction in their odds of using hard drugs during the follow-up points than their counterparts in the shelter linkage condition. And finally, those who utilized services more often during the follow-ups were those who exhibited less hard drug use at baseline and less reduction in their odds of using hard drugs.This study suggests that drop-in centers, which are often characterized by low-demand programming and few behavioral restrictions, are effective for addressing hard drug use among homeless youth.

Outreach and service linkage are key for engaging marginalized populations, such as homeless youth, in services. Research to date has focused primarily on engaging individuals already receiving some services through emergency shelters, clinics, or other programs. Less is known about those who are not connected to services and, thus, likely the most vulnerable and in need of assistance. The current study sought to engage non-service-connected homeless youth (N = 79) into a strengths-based outreach and advocacy intervention. Youth were randomly assigned to receive 6 months of advocacy that focused on linking youth to a drop-in center (n = 40) or to a crisis shelter (n = 39). All youth were assessed at baseline and 3, 6, and 9 months post-baseline. Findings indicated that youth prefer drop-in center services to the shelter. Also, the drop-in center linkage condition was associated with more service linkage overall (B = 0.34, SE = 0.04, p

Homeless youth have high rates of substance use and often lack connection to social services. Outreach is critical for connecting youth to services, but factors influencing their outreach engagement are unknown. This study examined predictors of meetings with outreach workers among 79 non-service connected, substance using homeless youth between 14 and 24 years of age. Results provide direction to service providers in that older age, higher levels of depressive symptoms, fewer drug-related problems, and no use of hard drugs within the prior 30 days predicted higher meeting attendance. Future research is needed testing strategies that overcome barriers to outreach engagement.

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.

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.

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.