The current evidence of solution-focused brief therapy: A meta-analysis of psychosocial outcomes and moderating...

Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) focuses on the strengths and resources of clients, and is assumed to achieve positive results on various psychosocial outcomes. This meta-analysis is an extension of previous meta-analyses on SFBT, and examines if the effectiveness of SFBT is influenced by participant, intervention, study and publication characteristics.

Experimental and quasi-experimental studies were included. A three-level meta-analysis was performed on 72 studies and 489 effect sizes, accounting for within and between study differences.

The overall effect of SFBT on psychosocial problems was large (g = 1.17). Moderator analyses revealed larger effects of SFBT in non-clinical samples (g = 1.50) than in clinical samples (g = 0.78). Studies with treatment-as-usual (TAU) as control condition reported smaller effects (g = 0.58) than studies with a no-treatment control condition (g = 1.59). Relatively large effects were found for couples (g = 3.02) compared to other client groups (0.41 < g < 1.70), and marital functioning (g = 3.02) compared to other outcomes (0.23 < g < 1.31). Group therapy (g = 1.64) yielded a larger effect than individual therapy (g = 0.48).

The findings indicate that SFBT is applicable for a variety of clients and psychosocial problems.