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Posttreatment adjustment of clients who drop out early vs. late in treatment
Author(s) -
Pekarik Gene
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(199205)48:3<379::aid-jclp2270480317>3.0.co;2-p
Subject(s) - drop out , psychology , checklist , drop (telecommunication) , significant difference , clinical psychology , medicine , telecommunications , computer science , economics , demographic economics , cognitive psychology
Abstract Symptom improvement from intake until 4 months later was assessed for 33 adult and 35 child psychotherapy drop‐outs. Client ratings, therapist ratings, and symptom checklist changes were used as measures. Early drop‐outs (one or two visits) were less well adjusted than late drop‐outs (three or more visits) for both adults and children, though the difference was stronger for adults. Few differences were found between late drop‐outs and completers. It was concluded that outcome researchers should use routinely the same procedures for assessing drop‐outs' and completers' outcomes and that improvement of early and late drop‐outs should be distinguished.