ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology for Clinical Settings
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1531738
Functional Family Therapy Across the COVID-19 Pandemic
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Special Needs Education, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- 2Center for Educational Measurement, University of Oslo, Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- 3The Norwegian Center for Child Behavioral Development (NCCBD), Oslo, Norway
- 4University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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The present study examines the effectiveness of the Functional Family Therapy (FFT) program in Norway through the COVID-19 pandemic using archival data. Since Norway’s national lockdowns imposed significant disruptions on program delivery, concerns arose regarding FFT’s effectiveness during the public health emergency; however, this hypothesis remained untested. This exploratory study uses a multigroup quasi-experimental design by comparing clients before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data includes 518 adolescents and their families referred to FFT for serious and persistent antisocial behavior. The mean age of the youth was 14.2 years and the representation between boys and girls was close to equal (49.4% girls). Statistical analyses showed that clients’ attributes at admission remained stable, and FFT remained effective in bringing about behavioral improvements and risk reductions throughout the pandemic. Additionally, regression results suggested that older clients tended to have greater reductions in behavioral problems and risk levels before lockdowns; however, this age effect disappeared after the onset of COVID. Clients returning home from institutional care reported stronger behavioral gains, whereas those living in foster homes showed less favorable risk outcomes. Collectively, these results suggest that both the FFT target population and treatment outcomes remained stable despite disruptions in program delivery during the pandemic.
Keywords: Conduct problems, Adolescents, Family Therapy, Functional Family Therapy, Treatment outcome, COVID-19. 2 Conduct Problems, Adolescents, Family Therapy, Functional Family Therapy, Treatment outcome, COVID-19, Conduct Problems; Adolescents, Family Therapy, Functional family therapy, treatment outcome, COVID-19
Received: 20 Nov 2024; Accepted: 30 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hagen, Tan, Thøgersen and Bjørnebekk. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Gunnar Bjørnebekk, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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