A preliminary investigation of ethnic differences in resistance in multisystemic therapy

Therapy process research suggests that an inverted U-shaped trajectory of client resistance, referred to as the struggle-and-working-through pattern, predicts positive treatment outcomes. However, this research may lack external validity given the exclusive focus on European Americans. This preliminary study explores differences in resistance patterns in a sample of African American and European American juvenile drug offenders and their families (n = 41) participating in Multisystemic Therapy. Resistance was coded from session recordings at the beginning, middle, and end of treatment. There were significant ethnic differences in (a) mean resistance at midtreatment, (b) resistance trajectories, and (c) predictive relationships between resistance trajectories and criminal desistance. Notably, a negative quadratic (i.e., inverted U-shaped) resistance trajectory was more characteristic of European Americans who desisted from crime, whereas a positive quadratic (U-shaped) resistance pattern was more character...