EMPIRICALLY SUPPORTED PSYCHOSOCIAL INTERVENTIONS FOR CHILDREN - AN OVERVIEW

Discusses issues related to the identification of psychosocial interve ntions for children that have demonstrated efficacy. Recent debate con cerning differences between clinical trials research and clinical prac tice is summarized, including the tradeoff between interpretability (i nternal validity) and generalizability (external validity) of outcome studies. This article serves as an introduction to the special issue c ontaining articles that have as their focus the identification of empi rically supported psychosocial interventions for children as part of a task force. The article provides an overview of the history, agenda, and methodology used by the task force to define and identify specific empirically supported interventions for children with specific disord ers. Whereas a number of well-established or probably efficacious inte rventions are identified within the series, more work directed at clos ing the gap between research and practice is needed.