Morris, Steve G; (1999) Early changes in credibility of therapies offered in child and family work. Doctoral thesis (D.Clin.Psy), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

The aim of the research was to quantify some changes in families' beliefs about therapies that can occur very early on in the therapeutic relationship (Hardy et al, 1995). Brief descriptions were developed of the three main therapies offered at a child and family clinic to help families with reported difficulties with their children. Prior to being seen for an assessment interview, 33 mothers and 18 fathers rated the credibility of each of the therapy types by reading therapy descriptions and answering questions adapted from Borkovec & Nau (1972) in a postal questionnaire. Psychological mindedness was also assessed by administering a questionnaire adapted from Conte et al.'s (1990) Psychological Mindedness Scale. The credibility of the therapies was re-assessed by each mother and father immediately after the assessment interview using the same measure. At the same time, the main therapist involved in the interview also assessed the credibility of the therapies, according to how suitable they felt each of the therapies would be for the family just seen. The direction of changes in beliefs was measured, to see if there was a convergence towards the therapists' beliefs, as Atkinson et al. (1991) had shown. The research also investigated whether psychological mindedness affected the convergence of beliefs. The main finding was that mothers' therapy ratings all increased after assessment, significantly so for parent and family therapies. Some evidence was also found that mothers' therapy ratings began to converge towards those of the therapists - Mothers rated child therapy highest before assessment and then lowest after assessment. This change corresponded with the therapists' ratings since the therapists rated child therapy significantly lower than the other two therapies. - The group of more psychologically-minded mothers were significantly more pro-therapies than the other mothers. Finally, the therapists who assessed the more psychologically-minded mothers were more optimistic about the benefits of therapy for them than for the other mothers.

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