The development of the child psychotherapy process scales (CPPS)

This article presents the development of a new measure to describe and eval uate the process of child psychotherapy. Consisting of 15 child and 18 ther apist items in five-point Likert-type format, the Child Psychotherapy Proce ss Scales (CPPS) were modeled after widely used adult process scales. Three raters reliably scored 105 twenty-minute segments of child psychotherapy u sing the 33 items. Principal component analyses revealed three child factor s (therapeutic relationship, child therapeutic work, and child readiness) a nd three therapist factors (therapist technical work, therapeutic relations hip, and technical lapse) which described both positive and negative aspect s of the therapy process. Confirmatory P-technique analyses revealed that t he structure of therapist and child insession discourse differed significan tly across high and low CPPS-scored sessions. Discussion relates CPPS facto rs to those obtained in the adult literature and to child process factors o btained using clinician and child self-report instruments.