Change in adolescent boys at teen ranch: a five-year study

A five-year study was undertaken to assess the effectiveness of the Teen Ranch 70-bed residential treatment program for adolescent boys. To date, no long-term study of treatment effectiveness has been conducted; research has concentrated on recidivism, and while this provides some meaningful information, it provides little or no data to treatment directors, therapists, and administrators concerning in-process therapy or client change issues. The present study compared 120 full psychological test and retest batteries of boys who were in the program for at least one year. Through test-retest analysis, 27 intellectual and personality variables were compared to describe changes that took place. Nine intellectual and academic change variables and nine personality change variables were found to be significant. These changes were utilized to examine the overall effectiveness of the Teen Ranch residential treatment program and the possibility of integrating evaluation and treatment processes.