The impact of solution-focused brief therapy on young youth offenders

[摘要] ENGLISH ABTSRACT:The aim of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy(SFBT) in a South African Youth Centre for young offenders, to which the court had sentencedthem for two years. The study focused on the competencies and strengths of youth offenders, aswell as on their capacity to find solutions to their problems, whilst being realistic and trying toaccomplish positive change within the limits of the youth centre facility. An experimental andcontrol group design was used in order to assess the impact of the therapeutic intervention.The effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated within three main domains of humanexperience: (1) subjective discomfort, (2) interpersonal relationships, and (3) social roleperformance. Two measures were used, namely the OQ-45.2 (outcome questionnaire) andunstandardised scaling questions relating to participants' personalised goals. Results show thatno statistically significant improvement had occurred on the three measured dimensions.However, data obtained from the scaling questions reflected a more complete picture of the threeareas of functioning identified and explored in this study.Improvement towards the achievement of young offenders' personalised goals seemed to berapid at first, followed by a slightly slower rate of improvement and subsequent stabilisation.Scaling questions proved to be a useful technique for making complex aspects of these youngoffenders' lives more concrete and accessible to both the therapist and themselves. SFBT provedto be an effective method of intervention within group format in a facility for young offenders.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University