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Multisystemic Family Therapy

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy

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Introduction

Multisystemic therapy (MST®) is a family- and community-based mental health intervention that has been most extensively validated for the treatment of serious antisocial behavior in adolescents (e.g., conduct disorder, violent offending, sex offending, substance abuse) and has also been adapted and evaluated for the treatment of other challenging clinical problems such as child maltreatment and serious emotional disturbance. MST is one of the most widely disseminated evidence-based treatments for adolescents and their families, with programs in more than 30 states and 15 nations and a capacity to serve 23,000 youth and families annually. Across dissemination sites, the fidelity of MST programs is supported and monitored through an intensive and well-validated quality assurance/quality improvement system.

The primary aims of this chapter are to provide (a) an overview of MST clinical procedures and the quality assurance system that aims to optimize therapists’ adherence to...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Family Services Research Center, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA

    Scott W. Henggeler

Authors
  1. Scott W. Henggeler
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Scott W. Henggeler .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Jay L. Lebow

  2. The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Anthony L. Chambers

  3. The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Douglas C. Breunlin

Section Editor information

  1. Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ, USA

    Corinne Datchi

  2. The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Ryan M. Earl

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Henggeler, S.W. (2019). Multisystemic Family Therapy. In: Lebow, J.L., Chambers, A.L., Breunlin, D.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8_165

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