Effectiveness of psychotherapy with children and adolescents

Abstract

This article reviews the outcome evidence of psychotherapy for children and adolescents. The questions that guide treatment research, conclusions about alternative treatments, and the impact on different types of problems are reviewed. Alternative treatments for children and adolescents have produced change across a diverse range of emotional and behavioral problems. Progress and advances in treatment research are illustrated by highlighting alternative treatments and factors that contribute to outcome in the treatment of conduct problem children. Although important advances can be readily identified in outcome research, the pace of progress has been thwarted by challenges of the subject matter (e.g., developmental issues, comorbidity, and the diverse parent, family, and other contextual factors in which child dysfunction is embedded) and deficiencies in current research (e.g., ambiguity in the characteristics of the samples, weak statistical power, departure of treatment conditions in research from those that characterize clinical work). Notwithstanding the recency of empirical attention to the topic, progress is evident in developing effective treatments for a wide range of problems.