Written for an audience of applied researchers, clinical practitioners, community activists, and policymakers, this edited volume summarizes ongoing work at the Oregon Social Learning Center. Contributors make a powerful argument for an approach that pinpoints the antecedents of antisocial behavior all the way from toddlerhood through adolescence. This book will be of interest to anyone concerned about the quantifiable losses associated with behaviors such as violence and crime, incarceration, vocational failure, substance abuse, the use of emergency services, and irresponsible sexual conduct.

This comprehensive volume reviews and synthesizes a vast body of knowledge on maladaptive aggression and antisocial behavior in youth. Written from a clinical-developmental perspective, and integrating theory and research from diverse fields, the book examines the origins, development, outcomes, and treatment of this serious problem in contemporary society. Major topics addressed include the types and prevalence of aggressive and antisocial behavior; the interplay among neuropsychiatric, psychosocial, and neurobiological processes in etiology; known risk and protective factors; gender variables; and why and how some children "grow out of" conduct disturbances. Chapters also discuss current approaches to clinical assessment and diagnosis and review the evidence for widely used psychosocial and pharmacological interventions.

"Practical and authoritative, this volume belongs on the desks of clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and other clinicians working with children and families; agency administrators and policy makers; clinical researchers; and students training in the use of evidence-based mental health treatments. It may serve as a text in graduate-level courses and MST training seminars."--BOOK JACKET.

Multisystemic therapy (MST) has grown dramatically since the initial publication of this comprehensive manual. Today, over 400 MST programs operate in more than 30 states and 10 countries, supported by a strong empirical evidence base. This book explains the principles of MST and provides clear guidelines for clinical assessment and intervention with delinquent youth and their families. Practitioners are guided to implement proven strategies for engaging clients and helping them to address the root causes of antisocial behavior, improve family functioning and peer relationships, enhance school performance, and build meaningful social supports. New to This Edition *Includes the latest MST data and clinical refinements. *Revised to be even more user-friendly, with many new examples added. *A chapter on treating youth and caregiver substance abuse. *Expanded coverage of safety concerns, enhancing vocational outcomes, and MST adaptations for other clinical problems. *A chapter detailing the MST system for sustaining high-quality programs.

Among evidence-based therapies for children and adolescents with oppositional, aggressive, and antisocial behavior, parent management training (PMT) is without peer; no other treatment for children has been as thoroughly investigated and as widely applied. Here, Alan E. Kazdin brings together the conceptual and empirical bases underlying PMT with discussions of background, principles, and concepts, supplemented with concrete examples of the ways therapists should interact with parents and children. The second half of the book is a PMT treatment manual. The manual details the particulars of the therapy: what is done to and by whom, what the therapist should say, and what to expect at each stage of treatment. It also contains handouts, charts, and aides for parents. A companion website (www.oup.com/us/pmt) provides additional resources for clinicians.

As reflected in the title, the purpose of this book is to guide clinicians in understanding and treating youth with severe antisocial behavior. Children and adolescents with conduct disorders operate at quite a high cost to society. In many opinion polls, juvenile crime and violence is rated as one of the most pressing concerns for many in our society. This widespread concern has prompted professionals from many disciplines to search for more effective interventions to prevent and treat youth with such disorders. This book is my attempt to summarize the current status of this very important endeavor. In providing this guide to clinicians, I have attempted to emphasize the critical link between understanding the clinical presentation, course, and causes of conduct disorders and designing effective interventions for children and adolescents with these disorders. Many past books, book chapters, and review articles have emphasized one or the other of these objectives. Some have provided excellent summaries of the vast amount of research on youth with conduct disorders without explicitly and clearly describing the clinical applica tions of this research. Others have focused on the implementation of specific interventions for youth with conduct disorders that is divorced from a basic understanding of the many diverse and clinically important characteristics of this population. The overriding theme of this book is that successful clinical inter vention requires an integration of both bodies of knowledge.

Establishing the crucial link between theory, measurement, and intervention, PREVENTING ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR brings together a remarkable collection of studies that utilize experimental approaches for evaluating intervention programs for preventing deviant behavior. The book demonstrates both the feasibility and necessity of such independent evaluation. It also shows how the information obtained in such studies can be used to test and refine prevailing theories about human behavior in general and behavior changes in particular. The volume covers biological, social, emotional, and cognitive approaches to intervention. It highlights prevention experiments tailored to infants, children, and adolescents, describing family, school, and community programs. Some of the programs described target general populations at risk, while others focus on individuals. Throughout, the book emphasizes the importance of scientifically supportable evaluations: They are necessary not only because psychosocial treatments can be harmful, but also because such evaluations yield invaluable insights into why people behave as they do. Offering a broad perspective on socialization, PREVENTING ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR is essential reading for clinical psychologists, child psychiatrists, social workers, criminologists, sociologists, and educators. It also serves as a text for advanced students and trainees in these areas.