This article reviews the scientific evidence for the effectiveness of family‐based aproaches in the treatment of selected childhood behavioral disorders. Although limitations certainly exist, family interventions have consitently improved child and, in some cases, parent functioning in families with children presenting with conduct disorder (CD) and autism. Parents and other family members also directly benefit from child‐focused interventions, gaining in knowledge, child management skills, and attitudinal improvements. Longh‐term follow‐ups indicate that CD and autistic children achieved lasting gains. Similarly, the research on attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) indicates that parent training improves child noncompliance and aggression yet does not consistently affect core symptoms of ADHD. There is no evidence that adding short‐term family interventions improves ADHD child functioning beyond improvements from the use of psychostimulant medications. Some tentative support for family involvement in the treatment of childhood anxieties and fears is reviewed, but clear conclusions await future investigations. Finally, several methodological limitations and needed areas of research are discussed.

Drawing on social learning and structural family theories, we examined the connections between young adolescents' experiences with their mothers and fathers and their best friends. Young adolescents (N ϭ 143) from Latino and European American families were recruited from a local school district in a rural southwestern community. Adolescents described the emotional qualities of their relationship with each parent, the nature of the parent-adolescent hierarchy, and their experiences with their best friend. Findings revealed links between European American boys' experiences with their fathers and their best friends and between the nature of the parent-adolescent hierarchy and both boys' and girls' intimacy with their best friends. The discussion highlights implications for intervention in early adolescence.

The authors assessed the impact of training undergraduates in multicultural counseling competencies. When compared with a control group of students in a psychology of personality course (n = 20), repeated measures analyses of variance confirmed that multicultural counseling trainees (n = 21) significantly increased levels of multicultural counseling awareness and knowledge. As expected, there were no significant changes in either multicultural counseling skills or empathic responding. Ana Ulloa Estrada is an assistantprofessor at the University ofSan Diego. Joseph A. Durlak is a professor and director of Clinical Training, and Scot! C.Juarez is a former graduate student in Clinical Psychology, both at Loyola University Chicago. The authors thank Irene Landau for providing access to the students in the controlgroup and to Catherine Belanger for her thoughtfir1 comments on an earlier drafi. Correspondence regarding this article should be sent to

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