Parent Psychological Distress: A Moderator of Behavioral Health Intervention Outcomes among Justice-Involved Adolescents

We examined whether pre-existing parent psychological distress moderated juvenile offenders' substance use, sexual risk, and mental health outcomes in a randomized trial. Forty-seven parent-adolescent dyads received either Family-based Affect Management Intervention (FAMI) for adolescent substance use and HIV prevention or adolescent-only Health Promotion Intervention (HPI). Parents' self-reported distress at baseline significantly moderated adolescents' self-reported marijuana use and alcohol use but not other outcomes at 3 months postintervention, producing crossover interactions. FAMI outperformed HPI when parents reported high-level distress, whereas HPI outperformed FAMI when parents reported low-level distress. This finding that the relative efficacy of interventions depends on the severity of parent psychological distress could inform efforts to match substance-using, justice-involved adolescents with the intervention most likely to benefit them.