Family-based treatment for adolescent problem behaviors: Overview of contemporary developments and introduction to the special section.

Temple UniversityThe contemporary adolescent treatment field encompasses a remarkable diversity ofideas, treatment contexts, practice models, and treatment providers. Recently, therehave been significant changes in how we conceptualize adolescent problems, theknowledge bases we draw on to craft such understanding, the interventions we use totreat adolescent dysfunction, the contexts in which they are treated, the amount andquality of research on adolescent problems generally, and interventions for adolescentproblems in particular. The specialty is more complex and varied than ever before withsubspecialties addressing scientific, clinical, public health, and social policy concerns.This work is pursued in a wide variety of research and clinical contexts supported bya diverse group of federal, state, and local agencies and by private foundations.In introducing the special section, "Family-Based Treatment for Adolescent Problem Be-haviors," this article summarizes advances inpsychology's current understanding of adoles-cent problems and interventions and highlightsthe role of family-based treatment. The articlesin this special section illustrate contemporarydevelopments in adolescent problem behaviorintervention science, and they represent threeongoing research programs in this specialty.Although these programs are independent andhave been recognized separately (National In-stitute on Drug Abuse, in press; Shalala, 1995)since 1991, they are also interrelated within theCenter for Research on Adolescent Drug Abuse,the first federally funded treatment evaluationresearch center focused on family therapy(Azar, 1995). Adolescents challenge the societies in whichthey live. Adolescent rebellion, the generationgap, sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and theslacker generation are all terms invoked tocharacterize late 20th-century adolescents. Al-though most people have ideas about what teen-Correspondence concerning this article should beaddressed to Howard A. Liddle, Center for Researchon Adolescent Drug Abuse, Temple University, TU265-66, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122. E-mailmay be sent via the Internet to hliddle@aol.com. agers are like, frequently these opinions are notbased in fact (Steinberg, 1990). In a classicstudy, a variety of people displayed a negativeattribution bias toward teenagers (e.g., conceiv-ing of adolescents as more emotionally labileand generally more dysfunctional than researchhas found them to be; Offer, Ostrov, & Howard,1981). Similarly, anthropological studies acrosscultures reveal considerable ambivalence inhow people feel about teenagers (Kett, 1977;Schlegal & Barry, 1991). Despite over two de-cades of research on adolescent development,professionals and the public at large continue torely on myths and stereotypes to characterizeteenagers in contemporary society (Petersen,1988; Steinberg, 1990). Teenagers are appreciated as an attractivemarket niche, rich with economic potential.Product manufacturers, advertisers, and movieand music executives have long exploited thebottom-line enhancement possibilities of the ad-olescent market. Mental health care providersalso have not been blind to the financial possi-bilities born from teenagers' problems. The em-phasis on incarceration, extraction from fami-lies, and inpatient and residential placementsthat disregard the social ecology of youths havebeen, in part, economically driven. Adolescentplacement has become a growth industry madepossible by circumstances such as the numbers