This article describes a theoretically based structural family assessment procedure designed for use in evaluating therapy outcome. The standardized procedure for eliciting family interaction consists of the administration of three family tasks. The family's interactional patterns on the tasks are evaluated along six dimensions of structural family functioning: Structure, Flexibility, Resonance, Developmental Stage, Identified Patienthood, and Conflict Resolution. A manual has been developed for standardizing ratings for research applications. The measure demonstrated good interrater and internal consistency reliability. Available evidence for the content, factor, and construct validity of the measure is presented. Clinical outcome research studies conducted with the measure provide evidence that the measure is sensitive to different types of structural family intervention modalities and that it discriminates between a structural family intervention versus a no treatment/wait list control condition as well as between a structural family intervention versus an individual psychotherapy treatment modality. Finally, the measure has been demonstrated to be nonreactive under both treatment and wait list conditions.

This article examines the important role that the interplay between theory, research, and application has in fostering breakthroughs in the treatment of clinical problems. This issue is presented in the context of an ongoing program of psychotherapy research that targets for intervention Hispanic behavior problem youth and their families. Findings and breakthroughs in structural family therapy, the measurement of family and child psychodynamic functioning, the development of culturally appropriate interventions, the role of attrition as a measure of outcome, and the investigation of theoretically postulated mechanisms in behavior change are discussed. Recommendations for future research directions are made.

Undertook a factor analysis of a Spanish translation of the Revised Behavior Problem Checklist (RBPC) based on mothers' ratings for a clinical sample of 144 male Hispanic children and adolescents. Using the principal-axis method with varimax rotation, we retained six factors. We found congruence with established RBPC factors for five of the six scales (Conduct Disorder, Socialized Aggression, Attention Problems-Immaturity, Anxiety-Withdrawal, and Motor Excess), but no Psychotic Behavior factor appeared, and a small Conduct Disorder-Peers factor emerged. These results, as well as other comparisons between this sample and RBPC samples, suggest that the translation of RBPC is suitable for use with male Hispanic children and adolescents.

Structural family therapy, psychodynamic child therapy, and a recreational control condition were compared for 69 six-to-twelve-year-old Hispanic boys who presented with behavioral and emotional problems. The results suggest that the control condition was significantly less effective in retaining cases than the two treatment conditions, which were apparently equivalent in reducing behavioral and emotional problems as well as in improving psychodynamic ratings of child functioning. Structural family therapy was more effective than psychodynamic child therapy in protecting the integrity of the family at 1-year follow-up. Finally, the results did not support basic assumptions of structural family systems therapy regarding the mechanisms mediating symptom reduction.

Evidence ispresentedfor the efficacy of Family Effectiveness Training (FET). FET is a prevention/intervention modality designedfor use with Hispanicfamilies of preadolescents who are "at risk" for future drug abuse. Family Effectiveness Training targets a constellation offactors that putfamilies at riskfor developing a drug abusing adolescent. Intervention strategies target existing maladaptive family interactions, and prevention strategies target two common stressors in Hispanic families: intergenerational and intercultural conflicts. Seventy-nine Hispanic families meeting the criteria for "at-risk"families constituted the subject population. Families were randomly assigned to either an FET condition or to Minimum Contact Control Condition. A Solomon Four Group Design was used to test the effects of both the intervention and the assessment procedures. Three sets of analyses were conducted: (I)for all subjects, 2 X 2 ANOVAs investigating the effects of intervention and preassessment on posttest outcome scores; and (2) for subjects with preassessment, ANCO VAs investigating the effects of FETand control conditions on outcome, using preassessment scores as covariates; and (3) repeated measures ANO VAs investigating the long-term impact of FETfrom pre to post tofollow-up. There were no significant effects due to preassessmentfor any of the variables measured. Families in the FET condition showed significantly greater improvement than did control families on independent measures of structuralfamilyfunctioning, problem behaviors as reported by parents, and on a self-administered measure of child self-concept. FET impact was generally maintained at the time of a six-month follow-up.

This study compares the efficacy of Bicultural Effectiveness Training (BET), a new intervention modality, and Structural Family Therapy (SFT), an established treatment approach. Cuban American families experiencing intercultural and intergenerational differences in which an adolescent member manifested symptoms of conduct disorder and/or social mal-adjustment were the subjects. The experimental intervention condition, BET, uses culture as content around which to bring about changes in the family's style of relating. The comparison (control) condition, SFT, is an approach which also focuses on changing the family's style of relating but, in comparison to BET, it is more process oriented and may use any content that emerges from the family. The relative effectiveness of the two family intervention modalities was determined by the degree to which improvement was achieved, as assessed by treatment outcome instruments designed to measure family interactional patterns (structure), family levels of acculturation and biculturalism, and adolescent behavior problems and psychopathology. The findings indicated that families/adolescents in both treatment groups demonstrated significant pre-post treatment changes in the hypothesized direction. This finding is important since BET is a standarized method of service delivery that is attractive to families, is easily replicable, and has the potential for broad distribution, making it useful to early intevention and prevention approaches.