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. 2010 Jul;34(4):310-29.
doi: 10.1177/0145445510373384.

Measuring homework completion in behavioral activation

Andrew M Busch  1 , Lisa A Uebelacker, Zornitsa Kalibatseva, Ivan W Miller
Affiliations

Measuring homework completion in behavioral activation

Andrew M Busch et al. Behav Modif. 2010 Jul.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop and validate an observer-based coding system for the characterization and completion of homework assignments during Behavioral Activation (BA). Existing measures of homework completion are generally unsophisticated, and there is no current measure of homework completion designed to capture the particularities of BA. The tested scale sought to capture the type of assignment, realm of functioning targeted, extent of completion, and assignment difficulty. Homework assignments were drawn from 12 (mean age = 48, 83% female) clients in two trials of a 10-session BA manual targeting treatment-resistant depression in primary care. The two coders demonstrated acceptable or better reliability on most codes, and unreliable codes were dropped from the proposed scale. In addition, correlations between homework completion and outcome were strong, providing some support for construct validity. Ultimately, this line of research aims to develop a user-friendly, reliable measure of BA homework completion that can be completed by a therapist during session.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interests with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

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