ABSTRACT
Interventions provided for parents will be a function of the availability of therapies in the community rather than their expected efficacy for the families. Child protective service agencies, with an official government charge to protect children and youth against abuse, will recommend that treatment be given. A common strategy employed by professionals officially charged with working with identified abusive parents is placing the youth outside the family in foster care or a small group home. Many stepparents of adolescents are at risk for relationship and child-management problems when faced with troubled youth. Treatment would be directed toward behaviors in the parents that are antecedents to abusive behavior. The therapist would have the opportunity to help parents separate realistic from unrealistic behaviors for reinforcement and extinction. Children are frequently identified as parenting their parents and siblings in place of the parents. Restructuring the power becomes the therapist's task in order to create a more realistic fulfillment of the various family roles.
