The influence of factors related to parent features on the children and adolescents psychotherapy efficacy

Abstract

The paper is an analytical overview of the results of foreign scientific researches of parental factors’ psychotherapy of children and adolescents. The fundamental differences between child / adolescent psychotherapy and adult psychotherapy are shown: characteristics of the client, sources of information and the influence of the social environment. We identified five groups of psychotherapy efficiency of children and adolescents: procedural factors, “children/adolescent” factors, parental factors, family factors and psychotherapist factors.

Parental factors that have a positive impact on the process of psychotherapy of children and adolescents are as follows: 1) parental self-efficacy which is associated with father’s and mother’s beliefs about their own parental competence; 2) parental involvement in the process of psychotherapy which provides cooperation with the child psychotherapist/psychologist; 3) parental adherence to psychotherapy which allows to adjust and modify their educational tactics and strategy; 4) adequate parental expectations which correlate with the duration of child/adolescent psychotherapy. It is shown that adverse prognostic factors for the process of children and adolescents psychotherapy are as follows: 1) psychopathological status of parents which restrict the positive changes of the child/adolescent; 2) high levels of parental stress that does not change the particular nature of parent-child relationship; 3) inadequate level of hostility and criticism of parents in relation to the child who is not able receive new social and emotional experience.

The paper emphasizes that the underestimating or neglecting psychotherapy efficacy of children and adolescents is associated with the particular features of their parents, so it can result in early psychotherapy ceasing and reducing the achieved positive results.