This dissertation contains two studies that examine family therapy services within public schools related to behavioral or discipline concerns. Both studies stem from an ecological and family systems theoretical framework in examining relationships between the student, family, and school systems. The first study is a scoping review on family…

Therapist-report measures of evidence-based interventions have enormous potential utility as quality indicators in routine care; yet, few such tools have shown strong psychometric properties. This study describes reliability and validity characteristics of a therapist-report measure of family therapy techniques for treating adolescent conduct and…

Purpose: This overview of reviews analyses the existing evidence base of functional family therapy (FFT), which is a manualized, family-based intervention for youth with behavioral problems and their families. FFT has been implemented among youth aged 10-18 at risk of, or presenting with, behavioral problems such as delinquency, violence,…

In this pilot study, we examined whether a 2-day Emotion-Focused Family Therapy workshop strengthened parental self-efficacy, satisfaction and beliefs regarding their ability to help their children regulate emotions and reduce the children's symptoms of behavioural- or psychological difficulties. Twenty-three caretakers with 17 children (9 boys)…

Introduction: Despite the high prevalence of mental health issues for young people with intellectual disability (ID), young people with ID can struggle to receive the mental health support they need. The aim of this study was to examine a new community-based, clinical mental health service for young people (12-25 years) with co-occurring ID and…

Counselling services are an integral part of a school's pastoral response to children and adolescents experiencing mental health or behavioural challenges. Professional practice documents published within Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America uniformly articulate the capacity of the counsellor to intervene when presented…

Challenging behaviors are a known predictor of high parenting stress in families of children with autism spectrum disorders. However, few studies have evaluated the effect of reducing challenging behaviors on parenting stress. The purpose of our study was to (a) examine the impact of reducing the frequency and severity of challenging behaviors on…

Children who are adopted at an older age through foster care and those adopted from overseas orphanages are at high risk for behavioral and emotional distress. This important manual presents a structured, evidence-based protocol for providing mental health treatment to families adopting vulnerable children. Drawing on their extensive clinical…

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy is an empirically based, behavioral parent training program for young children exhibiting disruptive behaviors. Parent--Child Interaction Therapy shows promise for treating disruptive behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder. Treatment processes (i.e. treatment length and homework compliance), parenting…

School refusal and truancy is a community problem that affects individuals, families, and organizations while lacking a universally accepted definition. At-risk youth often exhibit academic failure, and externalized and or internalized problematic behaviors while schools lose funding and families become disconnected. The school setting allows…