Therapeutic Assessment With Children: A Pilot Study of Treatment Acceptability and Outcome

Abstract

Therapeutic Assessment (TA) with children is a hybrid of psychological assessment and short-term intervention. It uses the ongoing process and results of psychological assessment to enhance parents' understanding of their child and to facilitate change. Clinical reports and single case studies suggest that TA with children is an acceptable and effective brief intervention. However, no aggregate data have been published to support this claim. This pilot study investigated the acceptability and preoutcome-postoutcome of TA with 14 clinically referred children with emotional and behavior problems and their parents. Results indicated high treatment acceptability as well as significantly decreased child symptomatology and enhanced family functioning as reported by children and mothers. In addition, mothers demonstrated a significant increase in positive emotion and a significant decrease in negative emotion pertaining to their children's challenges and future. The findings, although limited due to the design and small sample size, support assertions from published single case studies that TA is possibly an efficacious child and family intervention for children with emotional and behavioral problems and should be studied in a larger, comparison design.

Therapeutic Assessment with couples

“…Tharinger, Finn, Gentry, Hamilton, Fowler, Matson, Krumholz, and Walkowiak (2009) found TA with children to be associated with significantly decreased child symptomatology and improved family functioning.…”

“…To date, all of the empirical research on collaborative and Therapeutic Assessment has focused on individual (Ackerman et al, 2000;Finn & Tonsager, 1992;Hilsenroth et al, 2004;Newman & Greenway, 1997) and family clients (Smith et al, 2009;Tharinger et al, 2009;Tharinger, Finn, Wilkinson, & Schaber, 2007). However, an accumulating body of case material suggests collaborative and Therapeutic Assessment techniques may also be useful for psychologists working with couples, either as a precursor or supplement to traditional couples therapy (Butcher, 1990;Dorr, 1981;Finn, 2007;Richman & Davidoff, 1971).…”

“…Other researchers have found that clients who participate in TA before beginning a course of psychotherapy are likely to be more committed to therapy and experience a stronger alliance to the therapist than clients who participate in more traditional assessments (Ackerman, Hilsenroth, Baity, & Blagys, 2000;Hilsenroth, Peters, & Ackerman, 2004). In addition, preliminary studies of TA as a therapeutic intervention for children and families have found TA to be associated with decreased psychological symptomatology in children and improved family functioning (Smith, Wolf, Handler, and Nash, 2009;Tharinger, Finn, Gentry, Fowler, et al, 2009). Finn (2007) recently suggested TA may also be a useful intervention for couples who are experiencing distress or dissatisfaction in their relationships.…”

Effect of Acculturation on Parental Perception of Child Psychological Assessment Among Chinese Americans

“…Adult and adolescent clients are found to possess greater self--knowledge and an increased sense of self--efficacy (Finn & Thonsager, 1997), as well as stronger therapeutic alliance and engagement in later psychotherapy after the assessment has been completed (Ackerman, Hilsenroth, Baity, & Blagys, 2000). Positive outcomes--including higher treatment acceptability, significantly decreased child symptomatology, and enhanced family functioning are also reported upon finishing therapeutic assessment with children and their families (Tharinger, et al, 2009). In sum, the TA has been developed to make psychological assessment a positive and meaningful experience for clients and has been shown to be psychologically beneficial to clients.…”

“…Particularly, a study was conducted to study the efficacy of the TA--C with 14 children and their parents in a university clinic setting. It found that both children and their mother reported positive outcomes, including higher treatment acceptability, decreased child and parental symptomatology and better family functioning after participating in the TA (Tharinger, et al, 2009). …”