{"id":6730,"date":"2013-01-29T17:07:33","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T21:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/?p=6730"},"modified":"2013-01-29T17:07:33","modified_gmt":"2013-01-29T21:07:33","slug":"how-effective-are-tactics-used-on-tv-shows-to-treat-troubled-teens-maia-szalavitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2013\/01\/how-effective-are-tactics-used-on-tv-shows-to-treat-troubled-teens-maia-szalavitz.html","title":{"rendered":"“How Effective Are Tactics Used on TV Shows to Treat Troubled Teens?”: Maia Szalavitz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

reports:<\/p>\n

Terrifying teens by making them lie in coffins, forcing them to spend a night on a frigid street or a bare prison cell\u2014 these harsh measures are used in reality shows in an attempt to put delinquents back on the straight and narrow.\u00a0 But the strategies may make for better TV than treatment. \u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not like there\u2019s a shortage of data or any scientific controversy over Scared Straight\u2019s actual results.\u00a0 In fact, a Cochrane review <\/a>\u2014 the gold standard for evidence-based medicine \u2014 concluded that kids sent to Scared Straight were 68-71% more <\/em>likely to commit crimes than those randomized to receive no intervention at all.<\/p>\n

Teen Trouble\u2019s<\/em> approach is similarly problematic.\u00a0 Most of the adolescents who appear on the show have drug problems and some have mental illnesses like depression<\/a>, but are not given treatment proven to work for these conditions. Instead, Teen Trouble<\/em> relies on inducing fear through confrontation, supposedly to show teens the potential consequences of their actions: disfigurement, disability, homelessness, death.<\/p>\n

In one episode, for example, a girl is forced to lie down in a coffin and touch dead bodies; in another, a boy is put in casts and a wheelchair.\u00a0\u00a0A third episode includes a \u201cmake over\u201d where a teen girl\u2019s face appears covered with scabs and sores; another sees a young woman spend a winter night on the streets with the homeless.\u00a0Afterward, many of the teens are sent to tough wilderness or \u201cemotional growth\u201d boarding schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime and time again, research finds these approaches to be innocuous at best and traumatizing at worst,\u201d says John Norcross, professor of psychology at the University of Scranton who studies the effectiveness of psychological treatments.<\/p>\n

A 2007 review<\/a> [PDF] of the literature on tough-love or confrontational strategies to deal with drug problems concluded \u201cFour decades of research have failed to yield a single clinical trial showing efficacy of confrontational counseling, whereas a number have documented harmful effects, particularly for more vulnerable populations.\u201d Teens are one such susceptible group.<\/p>\n

Studies on virtually all of the tactics seen on Beyond Scared Straight<\/em> \u2014 from getting in people\u2019s faces and screaming at them, to forcing them to view videos of themselves filmed when they were intoxicated\u2014 showed that these tactics have either no effects or negative ones on teens\u2019 behavior.\u00a0 One study revealed that the more a counselor confronts an alcoholic, the more he or she later drinks. \u2026<\/p>\n

In one episode [of Teen Trouble<\/em>], for instance, he ships off a 16-year-old girl with a drinking problem to a program called Axios Youth Community. \u00a0Several weeks after the show was taped, the program was shuttered following allegations that an employee had sexually molested a 13-year-old girl. In another episode, a 16-year-old girl who was injecting heroin was sent to a \u201ctherapeutic boarding school,\u201d\u00a0Copper Canyon Academy,\u00a0 which claims to help troubled girls but is not a specialized center for treating teens with the most serious addictions.<\/p>\n

The mother of a former student at Copper Canyon recently told<\/a> the New York Post<\/em> that while she\u2019d expected a \u201ctop notch boarding school,\u201d instead the program turned out to be a \u201cNazi concentration camp.\u201d\u00a0 Former students interviewed by the Post<\/em> describe confrontational and humiliating tactics, such as being made to re-enact traumatic experiences, including rape, in front of their classmates.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

more<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

reports: Terrifying teens by making them lie in coffins, forcing them to spend a night on a frigid street or a bare prison cell\u2014 these harsh measures are used in reality shows in an attempt to put delinquents back on the straight and narrow.\u00a0 But the strategies may make for better TV than treatment. \u2026 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[171,52,53,55,51],"class_list":["post-6730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-too-much-is-never-enough","tag-abuse-of-power-comes-as-no-surprise","tag-if-whiskey-were-a-woman-id-be-married-for-sure","tag-maia-szalavitz","tag-prayers-to-ven-matt-talbot","tag-so-far-from-god-so-close-to-the-united-states"],"yoast_head":"\n"How Effective Are Tactics Used on TV Shows to Treat Troubled Teens?": Maia Szalavitz<\/title>\n<meta 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