Developing methods to study child psychotherapy using new scales of therapeutic alliance and progressiveness

The purpose of this study was to adapt a methodology, which has previously been successfully employed in adult psychotherapy research, to study videot aped play therapy sessions with children. Therapist interventions in a chil d psychotherapy case were rated for Plan-compatibility, a case-specific mea sure of predicted helpfulness based on an independently generated case form ulation. Independent judges rated patient material before and after each in tervention with the Progressiveness Scale for Children, a generic measure o f patient progress, and the Child Therapeutic Alliance Scale, an eight-item measure which assessed elements of the patient's working capacity. A signi ficant association was found between the Plan-compatibility of therapist in terventions and changes in patient behavior following the interventions on some items of the Child Therapeutic Alliance Scale and to a more modest ext ent, on the Progressiveness Scale for Children. This method shows some prom ise for use in assessing immediate changes in patient process in child psyc hotherapy.