Personality outcomes of client-centered child therapy

The project reported here had as its aim the assessment of therapy outcomes by personality tests, therapist judgments, and client follow-up statements. The central hypothesis is that personality changes occur during a therapy period which do not occur in the same child during a no-therapy period, and which do not occur in control cases. In statistical terms, we test the null hypothesis that there are no differences significant at the 5% level between therapy and nontherapy changes. The therapy group consists of 17 children considered at least normally intelligent, 12 boys and 5 girls whose teachers believed them to be maladjusted. Three personality tests were given: one objective, one nonverbal projective, and one verbal projective. The three measures of therapy outcomes were found to be uncorrelated. This suggests that if each examines some aspect of personal adjustment, it is likely to be a different facet of the criterion universe. Reliable test improvements occur concomitantly with a series of therapy sessions. Despite the emotional dependence of children upon parents, therapy improvements occur without parent counseling. Projective test improvements appear greater than those on an objective test. Sex differences are notably absent. It is also concluded that effective therapy can be done in a school setting, insofar as tests may measure outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)