MST has proven positive outcomes for a wide range of troubled or at-risk teenagers including:

• juvenile delinquents,
• adjudicated youth,
• persons in need of supervision, and
• youth considered for or actually placed outside the home. 

The results of rigorous scientific studies funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health and National Institute on Drug Abuse show that MST is a clinically effective and cost-effective approach to the treatment of youth with complex clinical problems and their multi-need families.  In two randomized clinical trials involving chronic, violent juvenile offenders, MST significantly decreased problem behaviors in youth and psychiatric symptoms in parents, improved family functioning, significantly deceased incarceration and psychiatric hospitalization by 50-80%, and decreased criminal activity and re-arrest by 26-70%.  Importantly, treatment gains were maintained over time (2.4 - 4 years following treatment), and continued reductions in criminal activity were associated with significant cost savings relative to youth who received usual services or individual treatment.

Recently, the NIH State-of-the-Science Conference named MST one of only two programs to reduce youth violence and arrests that it could recommend without reservation. There are no other models available with this kind of evidence of ability to effect positive outcomes.