MEASURING TREATMENT PROCESS IN COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL AND INTERACTIONALGROUP THERAPIES FOR ADOLESCENT SUBSTANCE-ABUSERS

The state of the art for treatment efficacy studies now requires manua l guided treatments and tests of therapist adherence. This report prov ides findings regarding adherence assessment of therapists participati ng in an investigation of treatment matching in adolescent substance a busers. The Group Sessions Rating Scale (GSRS), a group-therapy proces s measure, was studied to determine its appropriateness for assessing group treatment of adolescents with a) substance use disorders (SUD), b) interrater reliability, c) internal consistency, and d) ability to discriminate the active ingredients of cognitive-behavioral therapy (C BT) from interactional therapy (IT). Interrater:reliabilities were mod erate to high, with those for CBT generally higher than those for IT. Internal consistency of CBT items was moderate, whereas those of IT we re moderately high. Discriminability between the two treatment modalit ies was high. The frequency of active ingredients was generally therap y-specfic: high for the relevant and low for the nonrelevant therapeut ic modality items. The GSRS was found to be effective in the measureme nt of treatment process in adolescents with SUD.