Although parents are often included in interventions with delinquent adolescents in community-based programs, attention to the effect on parents of living with challenging and antisocial children has been lacking in the literature. Recent research on reciprocal relationships and on the way delinquent adolescents affect parents can inform practice so that interventions are likely to be more acceptable to parents and more effective in addressing family interactions and youth behavior. We discuss implications for family treatment including assessing the impact of antisocial behavior on family members, decreasing inappropriate blame, developing collaborative relationships, increasing parent support, and planning for crisis management. We also consider implications for parent skills training and working through the juvenile justice system to be more responsive to parents' experiences in the service of better engagement, stronger family interventions, and improved services to delinquent youth.
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