The relationship between working alliance and therapeutic goal attainment in an adolescent inpatient, acute care behavioral hospital

Files

Schmit, Erika L dissertation.pdf (467.26 KB)

Date

2015-05

Authors

Schmit, Erika L.

ORCID

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

DOI

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/1969.6/627

Abstract

The working alliance continues to be the single most important aspect of counseling outcomes in various settings (Corsini and Wedding, 2011; Hanson et al., 2002; Munder et. al., 2010). Extant research is limited in examining the relationship between working alliance (Blais et al., 2010; Faw et. a., 2005) and therapeutic goal attainment (Balkin, 2013; Balkin & Roland, 2007) with adolescents in inpatient settings. The purpose of this study was to explore working alliance, measured with the Working Alliance Inventory-short (WAI-S), and therapeutic goal attainment, assessed with the Crisis Stabilization Scale (CriSS), with adolescents in an inpatient, acute-care, behavioral hospital in the South. A sample of 75 adolescents admitted into a short-term hospital for crisis reasons was utilized to examine working alliance and therapeutic goal attainment. A canonical correlation analysis was conducted to explore the extent of the relationship between these two variables. Additionally, differences between counselor and client ratings of working alliance were investigated using a repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance.
The results of the canonical correlation analysis indicated that a statistically significant relationship exists between counselor ratings of working alliance and therapeutic goal attainment. Additionally, a statistically significant difference was found on the counselor and client ratings of working alliance. Lastly, no statistically significant relationship was found between client ratings of working alliance and therapeutic goal attainment.
Implications and recommendations for future research are provided. A strong working alliance, specifically collaboration on tasks in counseling, is important for adolescents'   achievement of goals related to stabilization. Additionally, clients may over report progress in counseling. More research is needed with adolescents in crisis inpatient settings to support further findings.

Description

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in COUNSELOR EDUCATION from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Keywords

acute care, adolescents, inpatient, mental health, therapeutic goal attainment, working alliance

Sponsorship

Rights:

This material is made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user assumes full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used should be fully credited with its source. All rights are reserved and retained regardless of current or future development or laws that may apply to fair use standards. Permission for publication of this material, in part or in full, must be secured with the author and/or publisher.

Citation

Collections

Dissertations
College of Education and Human Development Theses and Dissertations