PREVENTING TREATMENT ATTRITION IN CHILD THERAPY

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DESCRIPTION (Adapted from the Applicant?s Abstract): Dropping out of mental health services is a significant problem for children and their families, as 40-60% of those who begin mental health treatment terminate prematurely. Attrition from psychotherapy is an issue that raises broad concerns for both research and clinical practice, and often leads to adverse methodological, clinical, and financial outcomes. Previous work on attrition from treatment has focused primarily on identifying pre-treatment predictors of dropout, and has generally failed to address the question of why families terminate treatment prematurely or to develop effective programs for reducing the rate of attrition. The main goal of this research project is to test a theoretically informed attrition prevention program in a sample of 115 aggressive and antisocial children and their families seeking treatment at a university-based outpatient clinic. The present study will use a randomized, controlled design and will assess factors related to treatment attrition and participation, as well as therapeutic progress, throughout the study period. The specific aims of this project are to (1) examine if the prevention program decreases the rate of attrition from treatment and increases treatment participation, (2) examine whether the program leads to better therapeutic progress, and (3) examine whether changes in parents? perceptions of "barriers-to-treatment" (e.g., stressors, obstacles) will predict attrition. This project will extend the current research on attrition in several ways, and will provide important data about the mechanisms involved in attrition, as well as information about techniques that may be useful in reducing attrition from child therapy.