DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY-RESEARCH

Research on psychosocial interventions with children requires attentio n to developmental principles such as age-specific competence, maturat ional shifts, increasing cone of relevant contacts, and socioeconomic context of biological stages. Research strategies that include such va riables should lead to ecologically sound investigations and the corre ct selection of outcome variables. A consideration of the specificity of treatment and controlled design alone are not sufficient to guide t he study of the psychological treatment of developing organisms and pe rsons.