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Description
Domestic violence experienced by a caregiver and their adolescent children represents a specific form of intergenerational trauma. Traditional trauma-focused interventions that focus on the child or adolescent without also providing an intervention for the caregiver may not address the cyclical nature and negative feedback loops that develop between a caregiver and adolescents when they have each experienced trauma due to domestic violence. This systematic literature review looked for evidence of family-based therapies that provided interventions for both traumatized adolescents and traumatized caregivers, with a goal of also searching for differences in reported intervention outcomes.
The intended focus of the systematic literature review was upon research studies of family systems comprised of a single primary caregiver and one or more adolescents who have experienced trauma due to domestic violence, excluding specific comorbidities such as substance abuse within that family system in order to provide a more generalized picture of intervention outcomes. The choice of family systems with adolescents was selected as adolescents may exhibit stronger desires for independence and control, are typically physically stronger and louder, and may be more of an elopement risk in comparison to children. An additional goal of the review was to identify any research gaps specific to therapeutic outcomes for family systems comprised of single-parents and adolescents.
The findings of this systematic literature review suggest that family-focused therapies, such as multidimensional family therapy and functional family therapy, may indeed be more effective with respect to improving family functioning in comparison to therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy that focus primarily on the individual (Carr, 2024). The systematic literature review also revealed that additional research specific to families composed of single caregivers and adolescents who have experienced domestic violence, as a specific form of intergenerational violence, may be required to verify that family trauma-focused therapies are indeed more effective in such cases.
Publication Date
4-30-2026
Keywords
intergenerational trauma, family-focused therapy, adolescent
Recommended Citation
Neumann, Andrew S., "Family-focused versus Individual-focused Therapy for Single Parent-Adolescent Family Systems" (2026). RCAC 2026 Posters. 47.
https://scholarworks.merrimack.edu/rcac_2026_posters/47