Behavioral and systemic family therapy in attention deficity hyperactivitydisorders of children: Differences in the assessment of experts and in observable therapist behavior

Are behavioral and systemic family therapy distinguishable approaches in re lation to conceptualisation, diagnostic and intervention of attention defic it hyperactivity disorder? First, we presented a table contrasting behavior al vs, systemic therapy and elaborated similarities and differences of thes e approaches with regard to theoretical background, etiological assumptions , diagnostic procedure, intervention methods and therapeutic relationship. Then, on the basis of treatment manuals, we developped 29 Items describing typical therapist actions in behavioral and systemic family therapy of atte ntion deficit hyperactivity disorder of children. Using this items 20 exper ts jugded both approaches und confirmed the differences postulated. In the context of a therapy comparison experiment 16 video scenes of therapeutic a ctions, half from behavioral and half from systemic family therapy, were ob served and rated using these items. We were able to confirm reliability of the observer ratings and to validate differences of the two therapeutic app roaches. Results were discussed as contribution to the problem of internal validity of therapy comparison experiments.