The Measurement of Outcome Variables in Couple and Family Therapy Research

The State of the Art in Family Therapy Research: What Works? How it Works?

“…Most recently, the importance of practice-based research and qualitative studies for evaluating the effectiveness of such interventions in general, and in family therapy in particular, has been debated (Larner, 2004;Popay, 2000, Sprenkle, 2012. Nevertheless, the legitimacy of those conclusions is directly related to the quality of the methods adopted within such deductions (Wood, Crane, Schaalje, & Law, 2005;Larner, 2004;Sanderson et al, 2009). As it has been noted in other areas, family therapy has used several methods for producing knowledge about the effectiveness and the process of change in therapy, from quantitative to qualitative methods.…”

“…As far as the meta-analysis studies are concerned, the predominant limitations are those associated with the heterogeneity of methodologies used in the various studies, where it proved common to combine studies using diversified evaluation measurements (Von Sydow et al, 2010). Also, the fact that meta-analyses involve a great number of researchers in the process of data collection and analysis may compromise the conclusions, since it can cause discrepancies in data quotation (Sanderson et al, 2009). On the other hand, in some studies regarding the process and outcomes of therapy, the existence of one single informant for both assessments limits the validity of the results, because the connection between the outcomes and the therapy process may be inflated by the shared variance of the respondent (Karver et al, 2005).…”

“…The analysis of 274 studies on the results of family and couple therapy (Sanderson et al, 2009) characterizes in general and current terms the empirical study carried out in this area, focusing on the following questions: most used methodological plans and the changes that such choice has suffered over the years; most studied clinical population; most researched problems; and the way in which the family and couple therapy outcomes have been evaluated. The results indicate that the most frequent research plan is the experimental one, followed by the pre-test/post-test without a comparison group and the quasi-experimental design.…”

“…Another limitation has to do with the fact that some investigations analyzed were not published in scientific journals (Karver et al, 2005). Finally, the majority of the meta-analyses did not review all studies published about the topic, only the ones integrated in a number of journals or during a predefined timeframe (Sanderson et al, 2009).…”

“…Moreover, existing arguments for the fact that some models produce change are rarely proven in a solid scientific way, and a significant part of this work is much more reliant on intuition and empiricism than science (Barker, 2000). Finally, an impressive body of studies constituting this path faces methodological limitations arising both from the object of study (joint therapy) and from the procedures used (Sanderson et al, 2009), which results in a lack of studies based on the point of view of families as a whole. In fact, it is nonetheless paradoxical that the route of family therapy research is focused on the analysis of the individual's perception, rather than on understanding the family's characteristics and relations (Lebow, 2013).…”