Gang involvement moderates the effectiveness of evidence-based intervention for justice-involved youth

There are no validated, evidence-based intervention approaches to helping youth who are involved in gang activity. The goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of gang involvement on the effectiveness of evidence-based intervention services for problem behavior delivered to youth referred by the justice system. We analyzed data drawn from 421 youth (69% male; M age = 15.08 years, SD = 132; 38% Black/African-American, 18% Latino/a, 34% White, 10% other) referred consecutively over a 13-month period for Multisystemic Therapy (MST; Henggeler, Schoenwald, Borduin, Rowland, &Cunningham, 2009) across clinical service sites in 7 different Eastern states of the US. Outcomes were indicated by successful or unsuccessful case closures, and gang involvement was indicated by a validated multi-factored classification scheme. We conducted analyses of outcomes related to gang involvement for the whole sample as well as a propensity score-matched (PSM) reduced sample. Analyses of treatment success rates indicate that gang involvement significantly and substantially reduces the effectiveness of MST in this population. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.