DRAWING ON CLINICAL-PRACTICE TO INFORM RESEARCH ON CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHOTHERAPY - SURVEY OF PRACTITIONERS

This study was designed to draw on clinical practice as a way of identifying priority areas for child and adolescent psychotherapy research. 1,162 psychologists and psychiatrists described several features of their clinical work and evaluated the effects of alternative treatment approaches, factors that influence therapeutic change, and the priority of alternative types of research. The majority agreed on (a) the importance of several specific child, parent, and therapist factors that contribute to outcome, (b) the utility and effectiveness of alternative treatment approaches, and (c) the high priority of research on therapeutic processes and matching cases to alternative types of treatments. In general, the factors, treatments, and types of studies identified have rarely been examined empirically. The use of practitioner views to identify lines of research may aid not only in reducing the hiatus between research and practice but also in placing clinical work on a stronger empirical footing.