title: Long-term follow-up as program evaluation: lessons from McCord's 30-year follow-up of the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study.
abstract: In the context of earlier work on the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study, McCord's recent 30-year follow-up is seen as raising issues with respect to the controlled experiment as a basis for evaluation and study of psychotherapeutic effects. The follow-up's general conclusion that "treatment" produces insidious long-term side-effects is challenged, and its specific stated conclusions are deemed unwarranted by the conceptualizations and evidence presented.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002660:Child Guidance; D003415:Crime; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D011613:Psychotherapy; D012917:Social Adjustment