Bias influencing maternal reports of child behaviour and emotional state.

BACKGROUND: Previous research has indicated that there may be only a modest degree of agreement between different reporters of a child's behaviour (mental health). This raises the possibility that some descriptions of the child's behaviour may reflect the personal characteristics of the respondent. We examine two potential sources of bias that may influence reports of a child's behaviour/mental health. The first is the mental or emotional impairment of the respondent; the second concerns gender-related expectations of children. METHODS: Mothers (and their children after the birth) were assessed at first clinic visit, 3-5 days after the birth, then 6 months, 5 years and 14 years after the birth. Some 70% of respondents giving birth remained in the study at the 14-year follow-up, leaving some 5277 cases for this analysis. At the 14-year follow-up, child behaviour (mental health) was assessed using the Child Behaviour Check List and the Youth Self Report. Maternal mental health was determined using the anxiety and depression subscales of the Delusions-Symptoms-States Inventory. RESULTS: Mothers who were not emotionally impaired reported fewer child behaviour problems than did the children themselves. As the mother's current emotional impairment increased, so her reports of the child's behaviour problems increased, when compared with the child's own reports. Further, mothers attributed more internalising symptoms to female respondents, and more externalising symptoms to male respondents, than did the child respondents themselves. CONCLUSIONS: Mothers differ systematically from their children when they are reporting their child's behaviour (mental health). The more emotionally impaired the mother, the greater the degree to which she imputes the child to have behaviour problems. Further, female children are attributed to have more internalising behaviours and male children externalising behaviours.

Development of a Satisfaction with Therapy and Therapist Scale.

OBJECTIVE: While much work has gone into developing measures of specific factors in psychotherapy for depression, measures for non-specific factors have been lacking. This paper aims to develop a scale for a non-specific factor called 'Satisfaction with Therapy and Therapist Scale'. METHOD: Sixty-seven patients with major depression completed the questionnaires during the fourth session of cognitive therapy. The patients went through an assessment clinical interview using a SCID. They also completed the ATQ, BDI and DAS questionnaires during the fourth session. RESULTS: Principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation showed that the scale possesses two factors, 'Satisfaction with Therapy' and 'Client Evaluation of Therapist', accounting for 64.7% of the total variance. The alpha Cronbach for the two factors is 0.91 and 0.80 with the total scale alpha at 0.90. The scale also possesses good concurrent and discriminant validity. CONCLUSION: The Satisfaction with Therapy and Therapist Scale is an adequate measure for measuring a non-specific factor in psychotherapy.

Comparison of specific and nonspecific factors in a group cognitive therapy for depression.

Research into the efficacy of psychotherapy has often reported equivalence in treatment outcome when comparing different therapies. These findings have been interpreted as evidence for what are variously termed placebo, common or nonspecific processes. We suggested that this issue is best examined in comparison of specific and nonspecific processes in the action of a specified therapy and disorder. No comparisons of this nature have yet been reported in relation to cognitive therapy for depression. This study compared specific processes (automatic thoughts and dysfunctional attitudes) and major common processes (satisfaction with therapy and client evaluation of therapist) in the action of a group cognitive therapy for depression. Sixty patients suffering from major depression received a 12 week course of group cognitive therapy. Results from hierarchical regression suggested that the specific processes of cognitive therapy were more associated with reduction in depression than common processes which contributed to the prediction of reduction in depression via specific processes.