Parent functioning and child psychotherapy outcomes: Predicting outcomes in usual care

The purpose of this study was (1) to examine whether three domains of a parent's functioning-parent distress, interpersonal relationships, and social role performance-changed over the course of their child's treatment, (2) to examine how these factors as measured at intake predicted youth progress in psychotherapy, and (3) to examine whether changes in these parent factors over the course of youth psychotherapy were associated with changes in youth symptoms.

Participants were 339 youth, ages 4-17 and their parents from a community outpatient treatment setting undergoing usual care. Parent and child outcomes were examined across five time points over the course of child treatment. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the relationship between parent domains and youth progress in therapy.

Results suggested that parent domains significantly predicted their child's symptoms at intake as well as change in psychotherapy. In addition, parent domains improved over the course of youth treatment and the progression of these changes was related to the progression of changes in youth scores across the course of treatment.

The results of this study highlight the important relationship between youth and parent functioning in the context of treatment of youth mental health issues.