Marianne Welmers

Therapists’ Contributions to the Alliance 77 CHAPTER 3 treatment reports of the alliance (β = .398, p <.001), whereas early treatment observed in-session alliance building behaviors did not. This indicates that there was no longitudinal contribution of observed early treatment in-session alliance building behaviors to therapist reports of mid-treatment alliance. Predictors of Client-reported Alliance As depicted in Table 5, several variables significantly predicted familymembers’ reports of mid-treatment alliance. There were no significant differences in alliance reports between parents and youth. Therapist gender was the only demographic feature that significantly predicted family members’ reports of the alliance, with higher alliance reports for female therapists as compared to male therapists (β = .404, p < .001). In line with our hypothesis, all five personality domains significantly predicted family members’ reports of mid-treatment alliance, but directions of the association were only partly as hypothesized. As expected, openness to experience (β = .202, p = .010) and agreeableness (β = .181, p = .024) were positively associated with family members’ alliance reports, whereas Neuroticism was negatively associated (β = -.264, p <.001). In contrast to our expectations, extraversion (β = -.196, p = .006) was also negatively associated with family members’ alliance reports, as was Conscientiousness (β = -.169, p = .028), on which we had no previous expectation for the direction of the association. These associations were all in the same direction as the associations with therapists’ alliance reports. Our hypothesis on the contribution of therapists’ clinical experience was not confirmed, as clinical experience was not significantly associated with therapist reports of mid-treatment alliance. As hypothesized, therapist alliance building behaviors predicted familymembers’ reports of the alliance: observed in-session therapist engagement (β = .305, p = .001) and emotional connection (β = .237, p <.001) behaviors at T2 were positively associated with familymembers’ reports of the alliance right after the observed session. In contrast to our hypothesis, therapists’ in-session safety behaviors were negatively but not significantly associated. Early alliance as reported by family members positively predicted their mid-treatment reports of the alliance (β = .464, p <.001). Early treatment in-session therapist alliance building behaviors were not significantly associated, indicating that there was no longitudinal contribution of therapists’ early treatment alliance building behaviors to family members’ reports of mid-treatment alliance.