Marianne Welmers

Chapter 4 94 Our second research questionwas: howdoes the therapist evaluatemultiple alliances and alliance discrepancies? Here, we formulated the following hypotheses: (1) when therapists report on multiple alliances of different family members, discrepancies between these alliances are smaller as compared to alliance discrepancies in observer reports and family members’ self-reports; and (2) therapist-reported alliance is associated more strongly with parent-reported alliance as compared to youth-reported alliance, and therapist- reported alliance is correlatedmore strongly withmother-reported alliance as compared to father-reported alliance. Results of this study may serve as a framework to further investigate the alliance as a common therapeutic factor in family treatment, and help therapists to monitor and optimize alliance processes in order to enhance treatment outcome. Methods Participants and Treatment Setting Participants were 92 parents ( n = 57 (step)mothers, n = 35 (step)fathers) and 61 children from 61 families. The mean age of the child for whom the treatment was indicated was 10.2 ( SD = 4.5; range 0.3 – 17.8). The mean age of the children participating in the study was 11.0 ( SD = 3.1; range 4-17), and the mean age of parents was 39.6 ( SD 8,3; range 25-57). In three families, one or both parents were born in another western country, and in four families one or both parents were born in a non-western country. Participating families received home-based family treatment for youth problems, called Intensieve Pedagogische Thuishulp ( IPT, Van der Steege, 2007). They were seen by 36 IPT-workers (14 % male, M age 42.7; SD = 9.6), with an average of 8.4 ( SD = 4.6) years of experience as IPT-worker. All had a social work related (post-) bachelor’s degree. Intensieve Pedagogische Thuishulp (IPT, Van der Steege, 2007) is a home based family treatment in the Netherlands for families dealing with complex child behavior and parenting problems. Most families experience problems in other domains as well, such as financial problems, parental psychopathology or lack of a supporting social network. The treatment has an empowering, solution-focused and systemic approach, focusing on improving parenting skills and enhancing social support (Van der Steege, 2007). During treatment, an IPT-worker visits the family once or twice a week or once every two weeks, depending on the families’ needs and stage of treatment. Families in this study received IPT for an average period of 49 weeks ( SD = 29,7; range 12-168).