Social class, the treatment process, and parents’ and children's expectations about child psychotherapy

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Abstract
Forty‐two boys aged 7–0 through 12–11 and their parents took a Therapy Survey measuring expectations about treatment at a children's psychiatric clinic about a week before their first therapy and counseling sessions. Their scores on the Survey taken at this time were compared with their scores on the Survey taken after the sixth session. Number of appointments cancelled or failed and number of dropouts were recorded through the first six sessions. Appropriateness of expectations was not found to be related to social class, age, or source of referral, but number of correct expectations held by the children was related to the number held by the parents. Expectations were corrected over the course of the first six sessions, but within treatment families the corrections were made independently of one another. Social class was not related to appointment keeping or to dropout. Inappropriateness of expectations, while also unrelated to appointment keeping, was related to dropout. Results suggest that inappropriate expectations can be as disruptive to child psychotherapy as to adult psychotherapy, and client expectations should be addressed at the very beginning of treatment.
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