Group Climate in Residential Youth Care: Development and Validation of the Group Climate Instrument-Revised.

Group climate in residential youth care is considered to be essential for treatment of youth and young adults. Various instruments exist to measure quality of living group climate, but some are lengthy, use complicated wording, which make them difficult to fill out by youth and individuals with a mild intellectual disability. The present study describes the development and rationale for the Group Climate Instrument-Revised (GCI-R). Construct validity and reliability of the GCI-R were examined by means of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) in a two-step validation process using a construction sample (n = 190 youth, representing 41 groups) and a validation sample (n = 207 youth, representing 42 groups). Results indicated a good fit of a five-factor model (Support, Growth, Physical Environment, Peer interactions, and Repression). Reliability of the scales was good. These findings indicate that the GCI-R can be used as a parsimonious, valid, and reliable instrument to assess perceptions of group climate in youth. Recommendations for future research and practice are suggested.

Measurement invariance of the group climate inventory across adults with and without mild intellectual disability in secure residential facilities.

BACKGROUND: The Group Climate Inventory (GCI) was tested for measurement invariance across 332 adults with and 225 adults without mild intellectual disabilities in Dutch forensic treatment, and for latent mean differences on its Support, Growth, Repression, and Atmosphere subscales. METHOD: Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate the configural, threshold, and loading and threshold invariance of the GCI across both groups, and to compare group latent means on each subscale. RESULTS: Measurement invariance was found across groups. Latent mean group comparisons showed small but significant differences reflected in lower scores on Support and Atmosphere in the group with mild intellectual disabilities. CONCLUSION: The GCI allows meaningful comparisons between clients with and without mild intellectual disabilities in secure facilities. Results from the between-group comparisons suggest that consideration should be given as to whether, and why, the support and atmosphere perceptions of clients with mild intellectual disabilities might be less good.

A Three-level Meta-analysis on the Alliance-Outcome Association in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy.

Previous meta-analyses have found small to moderate associations between child-therapist alliance and treatment outcomes. However, these meta-analyses have not taken into account changes in alliance (i.e., alliance shifts), alliance agreement (i.e., congruence or discrepancies between child-therapist ratings), and the role of alliance as a moderator in relation to treatment outcomes (i.e., an interaction effect of alliance and treatment condition on treatment outcomes). A series of multilevel meta-analyses of 99 studies was conducted to investigate several types of alliance-outcome associations in child and adolescent psychotherapy. Associations between child-therapist alliance and child outcomes (r = 0.17), changes in child-therapist alliance and child outcomes (r = 0.19), child-therapist alliance as a moderator of outcomes (r = 0.09), and parent-therapist alliance and child outcomes (r = 0.13) were small. Associations between child-therapist alliance agreement and outcomes (r = 0.21) and between parent-therapist alliance and parent outcomes (r = 0.24) were small to moderate. This meta-analysis provides the most updated and comprehensive overview of the alliance-outcome association in child and adolescent psychotherapy, showing that the alliance continues to show impact on treatment outcomes. Alliance research in youth psychotherapy has increasingly focused on several complex aspects of the alliance-outcome association, such as the role of changes in alliance, alliance discrepancies, client and therapist variability, and the reciprocal association between alliance and prior symptom change in relation to treatment outcomes. Implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.

A Meta-Analysis on Differences and Associations between Alliance Ratings in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy.

OBJECTIVE: The alliance in child and adolescent psychotherapy is widely recognized as an important factor in therapy. Studies on the alliance have increasingly focused on assessment of the alliance as a dyadic construct, measuring both client and therapist alliance ratings. However, cross-informant reports of the alliance in child psychotherapy have not yet been subjected to meta-analysis. Therefore, the present meta-analysis aims to increase knowledge on the degree of convergence and divergence between child, parent, therapist, and observer alliance ratings in child and adolescent psychotherapy. METHODS: A series of three-level meta-analyses of 78 studies was conducted to investigate differences and associations between child, parent, therapist, and observer alliance ratings in child and adolescent psychotherapy. RESULTS: Findings indicated that children and parents in general rated the alliance more positively than their therapists (d = 0.35, d = 0.72, respectively), and that child-therapist and parent-therapist alliance ratings were moderately correlated (r = .32, r = .23, respectively). Associations between child and therapist ratings and observer ratings were moderate to large (r = .43, r = .53, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: It can be concluded that children and parents generally report more positively on the alliance compared to their therapists, which is consistent with research on the alliance in adult populations. The small to moderate associations between alliance ratings indicate that individuals to some extent have a shared perspective on their alliance, and that the various perspectives on alliance should be acknowledged when dealing with children and parents in therapy. Implications for future research are discussed.

Group climate, aggressive incidents and coercion in a secure forensic setting for individuals with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning: A multilevel study.

BACKGROUND: This study examines associations between group climate, aggressive incidents and coercive measures in adults with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning (MID-BIF) of a secure forensic setting. METHOD: Participants (N = 248) were interviewed about their perception of group climate utilizing the Group Climate Instrument. Data on aggressive incidents and coercive measures were retrieved from the facilities' electronic database. A multilevel structural equation model was fitted in which variability in perception of group climate within and between living groups was examined. RESULTS: An open and therapeutic group climate was associated with lower levels of aggression within and between groups. A higher number of aggressive incidents were significantly associated with a higher number of coercive measures. CONCLUSIONS: The findings have implications for the understanding of how group climate may play a role in reducing aggressive incidents at the living group in treatment of individuals with MID-BIF in secure forensic settings.