Therapeutic OQ-45 Outcome Differences

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine whether Native American clients seen at a University Counseling Center had different treatment outcomes than did Caucasian clients according to the Outcome Questionnaire-45 (OQ) given at the first and final sessions. Methods: Participants included self-identified 21 Native American and 105 Caucasian clients who received services over the past 7 years and who had OQ-45 scores. Results: American Indian total scores on the OQ-45 were not that much different from Caucasian scores. As a whole, both groups showed no significant change in OQ-45 scores at the end of treatment. Discussion: Given the lack of research on this important group of color, these findings provide a unique comparison to a previous studies and suggest further research is needed about the effectiveness of therapeutic outcomes and practices with Native American clients.

A clinical science guide for reviewing the cross-cultural rigor of assessments in an alcohol training clinic.

“…There have been cross-cultural comparisons of the OQ-45 (Lambert et al, 2006), and it has been translated into Spanish (Iraurgi & Penas, 2021). A comparison study with AI and White university students found similar scores on the OQ-45 pre- and post-treatment (Limb et al, 2017); however, this study did not examine the psychometric validity of the measure. To our knowledge, there are no measurement invariance studies of the OQ-45.…”

Addressing elements of white supremacy in counselor education: The path forward for racial justice in the counseling field

“…Although there have been slight increases in receiving counseling services among communities of color (e.g., Latinx and Asian), a significant decrease was noted regarding received counseling services among Black community members, with 17% decreasing to 14.8% between 2020 and 2021 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2022). However, research data on counseling outcomes for communities of color is limited, given that research has mainly explored counseling outcomes with Asian, Latinx, and American Indian communities, which produced varying counseling outcomes for these communities (Kim et al., 2016; Limb et al., 2017. With these points in mind, it is essential for counselors to be well‐trained in being able to understand white supremacy's impacts on minoritized communities, as well as affirming counseling skills to help support communities of color in their unique lived experiences.…”