R&r2 For Families, Mentors And Support Persons

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R&R2 SHORT Version For Families R.R. Ross, Ph.D. Professor (ret) University of Ottawa The R&R2 SHORT Version For Families program is one of a number of new, specialized versions of the Reasoning & Rehabilitation Program (R&R). The R&R program is a cognitive behavioural program designed to reduce reoffending among juvenile and adult offenders by teaching them cognitive emotional and behavioural skills and values that are required for prosocial competence and are antagonistic to antisocial behaviour. R&R has been delivered to more than sixty thousand juvenile and adult offenders in seventeen countries. The efficacy of R&R in reducing re-offending has been demonstrated in several independent, international evaluations, in metanalyses and in cost-benefit analyses.

R&R – THE NEW EDITION: R&R2 All previous versions of the Reasoning & Rehabilitation program were designed for application across the population of offenders, a wide spectrum of different types of individuals. They relied upon a 'shot-gun' approach that did not enable the program to be tailored to the needs and circumstances of particular groups. The new edition of R&R, titled “R&R2” provides a number of new versions of the Reasoning & Rehabilitation program designed to correct this shortcoming. The specialized versions are also designed to accommodate practical and logistical considerations such as staff and financial resources of the agency and the number of hours participants are available for program participation. R&R2 SHORT Version For Families is one of the specialized and time-limited, but intensive versions.

PROGRAM MODEL Previous versions of R&R also focused on the individal offenders and did not include as a program target other factors in the offenders’ environment that may be contributing factors to their antisocial behavior. Offending behaviour is a consequence not only of characteristics of the individual but of the interactions between these characteristics and the individual’s environment. Such interactions need to be addressed to improve the efficacy of interventions designed to modify the individual’s antisocial behaviour. R&R2 SHORT Version For Families specifically address an aspect of the offenders’ social environment that is known to be critical in the etiology and persistence of antisocial behaviour: the family.

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There is a substantial body of research that demonstrates the salience of family factors in the etiology of antisocial behavior, delinquency and adult criminality. Such factors include parental criminality and/or substance abuse; physical and/or sexual abuse; inadequate warmth; insufficient supervision; inconsistent and/or ineffective discipline; excessive punishment; and lack of prosocial parental role modelling. Rather than viewing such factors as symptoms of parental pathology, the R&R2 SHORT Version For Families is based on the assumption that they may reflect a lack of prosocial competence in the parents (e.g. limited prosocial problem-solving skills, emotional management skills, negotiation skills, conflict management skills, reasoning skills, and underdeveloped prosocial values). The antisocial behaviour of many offenders is a consequence of the lack of opportunity provided in their family and social environment for the acquisition and reinforcement of prosocial cognitive, emotional and behavioral skills and values. The nature of their social environment has fostered the development of antisocial cognitive, emotional and behavioral skills and values. A key aspect of the offender’s social environment is his/her parents. They themselves may have been raised in a similarly limited or antisocial environment and may not have developed prosocial skills and values that they could model or teach to their children. The program is designed to empower the family by helping its members to acquire thinking, emotional, behavioral and interpersonal skills that will enable them to cope more effectively with the inevitable problems that are encountered in family life – particularly a family life that includes an antisocial child or adolescent. Moreover, the program is designed to teach family members specific social cognitive skills and values that can help them – and motivate them - to relate to one another in a way that will foster the development of prosocial competence in each family member. It is also designed to prevent delinquency in the offenders’ siblings by improving interactions among family members that may have contributed to the development of the antisocial behaviour of such offenders.

PROGRAM TARGETS R&R2 SHORT Version For Families has been designed for several types of families which have one or more young or adolescent children who are engaging in various disruptive and anti-social behaviors at home, in school or in the community:

3 1. Families in which the parents evidence some of the same underdeveloped prosocial skills and values that the adolescent displays. The R&R2 SHORT Version For Families provides for such families a core curriculum of cognitive and emotional skills and values through which they can be taught basic problem-solving skills, basic skills in emotional management, basic interpersonal skills, and values that underly prosocial competence. 2. Families with family members (adolescents or adults) who are currently being trained in an R&R or an R&R2 program in a community or institutional setting. The program is designed to enable the members of such families to understand what the family member is being taught in R&R or R&R2 by directly experiencing key aspects of the program themselves. It also enables them to provide encouragement and support for the family member as he/she attempts to apply the skills taught in R&R2 outside of the group sessions. The family can thereby asist in fostering the family member’s development of prosocial competence. Moreover, it may be that training the adolescent’s family in the skills may improve family relationships and thereby yield a better environment for the family member who has been trained or is currently undergoing training. 3. Although the program should ideally include all family members, in those cases where all of the members cannot be involved (e.g. very young children; absent fathers…), it can be delivered simply as a parent training program. Given the frequently unstable structure of the families of most adolescent and adult offenders, it was designed to accommodate a wide variety of family constellations including the most common: single-parent families. 4. The program can be delivered to the family either with the inclusion of the adolescent who has come to the attention of the agency or in his/her absence. In all cases Trainers must carefully consider whether the adolescent should or should not participate in training with the other family members. 5. The program has been designed such that it can also be delivered to groups that include the adolescent’s peers who, in many cases, are a key factor in the adolescent’s choice of an antisocial or a prosocial lifestyle. 6. R&R2 is designed not only as an offender rehabilitation program but also as a delinquency prevention program. It can be delivered to families that have a child or adolescent who is evidencing antisocial behaviour or difficulties in school but whose problems are not yet of such severity that they have attracted the attention of the police.

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NOTE: It must not be assumed that all families that have an antisocial member are lacking prosocial competence. Family problems are not the only cause of antisocial behavior.

A BRIEF INTERVENTION Most social cognitive-behavioral programs that are designed to teach pro-social competence require 50 to 70 sessions. Some are extensive programs that require delivery over several years - unrealistically demanding for families and staff in many agencies (and too expensive!). Similarly, most family therapy programs require weeks or even years of intervention by highly trained mental health practitioners. Although some of those programs have been demonstrated to be effective in reducing recidivism, many agencies lack the requisite reources to be able to provide them for their clients. The R&R2 SHORT Program For Families was designed, in part, to yield a much briefer program that can be used in settings where the families are available for only short periods of time and where the Trainers are not highly trained family therapists. The program requires only 9 sessions. Each session requires 90 minutes of training. Thus, by delivering 3 sessions per week, the thirteen hour program can be taught in 3 weeks.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES The R&R2 Short Version for Families is not a family therapy program. It is a skills training program. It is designed to equip Families with some of the skills and values that underlie pro-social competence. However, it cannot teach all of those skills – that would require a much more extensive program. Such a program can be delivered in the form of the original R&R2 Program. Rather, the Short Version for Families is designed to help them to recognize that there are such skills; to understand their benefits; to determine whether they possess the skills; to realize that they can learn the skills or improve those they already have acquired; and to teach them some of the key skills. The program is designed to stimulate them to engage themselves in the process of pro-social development. The program has four objectives: 1. Cost-effective intervention Some Families will benefit from their involvement in the SHORT program and will not require the additional training that is provided in the more

5 extended R&R2 Program. However, some may be motivated to do so as a result of their involvement in the Family program. 2. Assessment of the Families The R&R2 Short Version for Families was designed to serve not only as a basic cognitive-behavioural training program but also as an in vivo assessment device. The family’s performance in the short program provides a much more direct measure of their cognitive functioning and programming needs than can be ascertained by structured interviews or psychological tests alone. Their performance provides the Trainer with an opportunity to assess whether the family requires and would likely benefit from the more extensive program or from a family therapy program. Rather than providing all families with extensive training, those who actually require further training can be identified by their performance in the Short version and subsequently engaged in a more extensive program. The Short version also provides an opportunity to assess the particular cognitive and behavioural problems that need to be considered in assessing each family’s needs for and probable response to other programs - including other specialized versions of R&R2. Risk principle: A major consideration in our development of the Short Version For Families was the “Risk Principle”. Research has firmly established that whereas rehabilitation programs can be effective in reducing the re-offending of high-risk offenders, they may actually have a negative outcome with low-risk offenders. It has been established that one way to turn low-risk offenders into high- risk offenders is to engage them in programs (particularly programs in which they interact with high-risk offenders who may model or even teach them delinquent behaviours). We assume that the same principle applies to families. Trainers should assess the risk level of each family before engaging them in the program and, whenever possible, form separate groups for low and high-risk families. Moreover, Trainers should strive, whenever possible, to minimize contact among the participants outside the group. It should be recognized that one advantage of involving low-risk families in the R&R2 Short Version for Families is that it may provide them with skills that enable them to function better and thereby enable them to avoid the necessity of being involved in subsequent programs in which high-risk groups are participants. The Trainer’s observations of the family’s’ performance in the Short program may also help them to identify those participants who are most likely to be harmed by their subsequent enrolment in any kind of program that includes high-risk participants.

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3. Assessment of the program The R&R2 Short Version for Families provides an 'appetizer' or 'taster' that enables families to experience a short sample of the Comprehensive program so that they may assess whether they might wish to pursue such training. 4. Motivation A very high attrition rate characterizes almost all programs for offenders and is a common problem for most family programs. The majority of families referred to programs never attend enough sessions for the programs to have any benefit. Many families fail to attend the sessions even when they are court-ordered to do so. Their involvement in the SHORT program can serve as a motivator for families which require involvement in the more extensive Comprehensive program or other family therapy programs but may previously have lacked the motivation to engage in a longer program…or any program! 4. Support & Generalization The involvement of their family in the R&R2 SHORT Version for Families may serve as a partnership that can encourage offenders who are being offered an opportunity to engage in an R&R2 program. Moreover, by teaching the offenders’ families the skills that the offenders are acquiring in the R&R2 program, an environment is developed wherein the offender can experience support for their practice of skills they have learned in R&R2 and generalization of the use of those skills beyond the classroom is enhanced. Further information can be obtained at www.cognitivecentre.ca email: [email protected]