This study of 24 therapists and 64 family members representing 109 adolescent residents of six residential treatment centers aimed to better understand therapists' and family members' points of view about family involvement in residential treatment for troubled adolescents. The study also provided the therapists' and family members' recommendations for family involvement in residential treatment. Findings from this mixed-methods study suggest that (a) the families from this study were involved in many different ways in their adolescents' treatment, including phone calls, visits to the treatment center, participation in therapy, and so forth; (b) there were areas in which therapists and family members agreed (e.g., whether families used phone calls as a form of contact) and areas in which they disagreed about how involved the families were in treatment and therapy (e.g., how often any family member was involved in therapy with the adolescent); and (c) the therapists and family members recommended that families should be involved in therapy but recommend some forms of involvement over others.

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A National Survey indicated that 1.6 million adolescents in the U.S. were arrested in 2010 and 1.5 million in 2011 for erratic aggressive behaviors, thus showing a decline from the 2.18 million adolescent arrests in 2007. Residential facilities in the state of Pennsylvania offer a group intervention called Aggression Replacement Training (ART) to help adjudicated adolescents regain control of erratic behaviors. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which level of group participation in ART and certain demographic factors (age, gender, ethnicity, family socioeconomic status, parental involvement, and education) predict decreased aggression and increased anger control among these youth. Cognitive theory and change theory were used to guide this causal-comparative investigation. The overarching research question was, does a youth's level of ART group participation (i.e., attentive, inattentive, and resistant) result in a subsequent reduction in risk assessment as measured by post Aggression Questionnaire score differences. Data were collected for the period of 2011-2014 from archival records from 5 residential facilities (n = 160) in Pennsylvania and were statistically analyzed. Findings from an analysis of variance indicate that ART group participation predict decreased erratic aggressive behaviors and increased anger control among adolescents. Findings from multiple regression analyses indicate that parental involvement predicts attentive participation level, whereas ART group participation, gender, and parental involvement predicted a reduction in risk assessment. Study findings may assist other treatment facilities and affiliated agencies in the U.S. with developing and implementing effective interventions for youth who exhibit erratic aggressive behaviors.