MST is an intensive family- and community-based therapy program that addresses the multiple determinants of serious anti-social behavior among juvenile offenders. Primary program goals are to reduce youth criminal activity and other types of anti-social behavior (e.g., drug abuse). MST's approach views individuals as being nested within a complex network of interconnected systems encompassing individual, family, peer, school, and neighborhood factors. MST addresses the multiple factors known to be related to delinquency across the network of these key settings. The intervention aims to promote behavior change in the youth's natural environment by using each system’s strengths to facilitate the change. A major program goal is to improve parents’ skills and resources needed to raise a teenager and to help their child deal with family, peer, school, and neighborhood problems. In the context of skill building, the therapist places developmentally appropriate demands on the youth and his/her family for responsible behavior. Family members collaborate in the development of the treatment plan. MST is based on nine core principles: 1) The primary purpose of assessment is to understand how problems fit within their broader systemic context; 2) therapeutic contacts emphasize the positive and use systemic strengths as levers for change; 3) interventions are designed to promote responsible behavior among family members; 4) interventions are present-focused and action-oriented, targeting specific and well-defined problems; 5) interventions target sequences of behavior within and between multiple systems that maintain identified problems; 6) interventions are developmentally appropriate, and 7) require daily or weekly effort by family members; 8) intervention effectiveness is evaluated continuously from multiple perspectives, with providers assuming accountability for overcoming barriers to successful outcomes; and 9) interventions are designed to promote long-term maintenance of change by empowering caregivers to address family members’ needs. MST is one of ten interventions selected by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence for inclusion among its "Blueprints" programs. It has also been designated as an Exemplary I program by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in its "best practice" family strengthening programs for 1999.

Target Population

- Grade Level: from  Seventh grade to  Twelfth grade