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Child Psychotherapy Process Research

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Advances in Clinical Child Psychology

Part of the book series: Advances in Clinical Child Psychology ((ACCP,volume 20))

Abstract

Relative to studies of treatment outcome, psychotherapy process research has been the ignored stepchild of child psychotherapy investigators. In their review of the child therapy literature, Kazdin, Bass, Ayers, and Rodgers (1990) found that less than 3% of all child therapy studies examined treatment processes. Although research on therapy process with adults has waxed and waned over time in both the behavioral and non-behavioral traditions (Orlinsky & Russell, 1994; Russell & Orlinsky, 1996), the study of therapy process is “perhaps the area of work that is most discrepant between child and adult therapy” (Kazdin, 1995, p. 268). In recent years, however, there have been increasing calls for studies of child therapy processes (cf. Kazdin, 1995; Kendall & Morris, 1991; Russ, 1995), due, in part, to growing evidence from the adult therapy literature that variation in patterns of transactions within sessions contributes to the prediction of treatment outcome (cf. Orlinsky, Grawe, & Parks, 1994).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 60626, USA

    Robert L. Russell

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, 80208, USA

    Stephen R. Shirk

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  1. Robert L. Russell
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  2. Stephen R. Shirk
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

    Thomas H. Ollendick

  2. University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA

    Ronald J. Prinz

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Russell, R.L., Shirk, S.R. (1998). Child Psychotherapy Process Research. In: Ollendick, T.H., Prinz, R.J. (eds) Advances in Clinical Child Psychology. Advances in Clinical Child Psychology, vol 20. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9038-2_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9038-2_3

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