Adolescent Involvement in Parental Substance Abuse Treatment

Given the reciprocal nature of parent-child interaction, involvement of the adolescent in their mother's substance abuse treatment plan might be associated with reductions in adult relapse and improvements in child functioning. These findings would support the assertion that focus on family dynamics in substance abuse treatment programs is an effective use of resources and an important target of intervention efforts. One hundred eighty-three substance abusing mothers and their child (n=61 assigned to each condition) will receive treatment as usual (TAU) and be randomly assigned to 1) Ecologically-based family therapy (EBFT) conducted in the home or 2) Ecologically-based family therapy conducted at the treatment center, or 3) an attention control, Women's Health Education (WHE). In order to examine the endurance of treatment effects, this project will assess the parent and child at 3, 6, 12, and 18 months post-baseline. Hypotheses 1. It is expected that 1) mothers and children assigned to home and office based family therapy will show greater reductions in substance use and improvement in individual and family functioning at post-treatment compared to those in the attention control, and 2) those assigned to home-based family therapy will show greater reductions in substance use and improved individual and family functioning at post-treatment compared to those assigned to office-based family therapy. 2. It is expected that 1) those assigned to home or office based family therapy will continue to maintain improvements in substance use, individual and family domains over time (time by treatment interaction) compared to those assigned to the attention control and 2) those assigned to home-based family therapy will continue to maintain improvements in substance use, individual and family domains over time (time by treatment interaction) compared to those assigned to office-based family therapy. 3. It is hypothesized that improved family interaction skills will mediate s