CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Objectives: to analyze if PST´s function can predict early outcomes indicators in children psychotherapy; to analyze if therapist´s theoretical approach influences early therapeutic outcomes. Design: Quantitative approach, non-experimental design with repetitive measures. Participants: 36 children (between 8 a 12 years) undergoing private practice of psychotherapy. All children must be starting a treatment and have anxiety or depression symptoms. Also, 12 children´s therapists will participate, this professional must belong to different theoretical approach: cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychoanalytic therapy, and integrative therapy. The therapist´s year of clinical experience must not exceed 5 years. Measures: Personal Style of the Therapist Questionnaire [PST-Q] (Fernández-Álvarez et al., 2003) and Revised Children Scale of Children Anxiety and Depression [RCADS] (Chorpita et al., 2000). Procedure: The first stage of this research is the analysis of the psychometric properties of the RCADS, due to it´s not adapted for Argentinian children. Next, we will contact children therapists to fill the PST-Q. Children who start psychotherapy with these therapists will be asked to participate in the research, they must fill out the RCADS in different moments: after the first session, in the fourth session, and in the eighth session, to assess if there are significant changes in the anxiety and depression symptomatology. It´s necessary a proportion of three children assessed by each therapist, to study the compatibility between PST profiles and early changes in children symptomatology. Preliminary results: The project is currently at the first stage of the research, studying the psychometric properties of the RCADS