Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jul-Aug;50(4):443-449.
doi: 10.1080/15374416.2021.1929252. Epub 2021 Jun 7.

Embracing Scientific Humility and Complexity: Learning "What Works for Whom" in Youth Psychotherapy Research

Michael C Mullarkey  1 , Jessica L Schleider  1
Affiliations

Embracing Scientific Humility and Complexity: Learning "What Works for Whom" in Youth Psychotherapy Research

Michael C Mullarkey et al. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2021 Jul-Aug.

Abstract

Clinical psychological scientists have spent decades attempting to understand "what works for whom" in the context of youth psychotherapy, toward the longstanding goal of personalizing psychosocial interventions to fit individual needs and characteristics. However, as the articles in this Special Issue jointly underscore, more than 50 years of psychotherapy research has yet to help us realize this goal. In this introduction to the special issue, we outline how and why "aspiration-method mismatches" have hampered progress toward identifying moderators of youth psychotherapy; emphasize the need to embrace etiological complexity and scientific humility in pursuing new methodological solutions and propose individual and structural strategies for better-aligning clinical research methods with the goal of personalizing mental health care for youth with diverse identities and treatment needs.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Bachrach RL, & Chung T (2020, in press). Moderators of Substance Use Disorder Treatment for Adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 1–12. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chevance A, Ravaud P, Tomlinson A, Le Berre C, Teufer B, Touboul S, Fried EI, Gartlehner G, Cipriani A, & Tran VT (2020). Identifying outcomes for depression that matter to patients, informal caregivers, and health-care professionals: qualitative content analysis of a large international online survey. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(8), 692–702. - PubMed
    1. Cohen ZD, Kim TT, Van HL, Dekker JJM, & Driessen E (2019). A demonstration of a multi-method variable selection approach for treatment selection: Recommending cognitive-behavioral versus psychodynamic therapy for mild to moderate adult depression. Psychotherapy Research: Journal of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, 1–14. - PubMed
    1. Cuijpers P (2020). Measuring success in the treatment of depression: what is most important to patients? Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 20(2), 123–125. - PubMed
    1. Danzi BA, & La Greca AM (2020, in press). Treating Children and Adolescents with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Moderators of Treatment Response. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 1–7. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources