Adolescents in therapeutic communities

This study was designed to compare the course of change of two groups of conduct-disordered adolescents in two theoretically distinct residential treatment programs: a Therapeutic Community and a modified Token Economy. In all, 28 clients were assessed on multiple measures at three points in the treatment process in a repeated measures design. Results of the study indicated that, despite an overall trend toward improvement in both groups, there was little significant difference between the rates of progress over time. Dropouts and nondropouts could be differentiated only by a small number of baseline scores and the amount of family contact during placement. While comparative studies in residential treatment have been lacking, it appears that a more promising approach would be to examine common features of different models. The results of this study support the need for qualitative research focusing on the interaction of client attributes and underlying components of treatment modalities.