Assessment in PCIT
PCIT is an assessment-driven treatment. Assessments
provide information that helps to determine
treatment needs, evaluate treatment progress, and
assess treatment outcome. The intake assessment
makes use of multiple informants and methods of
measurement to enable an accurate conceptualization of the child and environmental factors contributing
to the development and maintenance of the
child’s disruptive behavior. Assessment methods
include clinical interviews, parent and teacher rating
scales, behavior observations, and measures of parent
functioning and satisfaction with treatment (see
Table 1 for a summary of measures developed
specifically for use with PCIT).
The intake assessment begins with a semistructured
interview with the child’s parents. As the
first contact between therapist and parents, the dual
goals of the interview are to establish a strong
therapeutic alliance and to gather information. The
therapist also attempts to build positive expectations
for treatment outcome. At the same time, the
therapist describes the realistic demands of treatment
and helps parents consider potential barriersto therapy and how they might be managed.
Following the interview, parents complete several
rating scales to quantify the child’s behavior.
Because the focus of PCIT is on the transactional
nature of the parent-child relationship as it affects
the child’s behavior, parents also complete selfreport
measures of their own psychological functioning,
as well as their parenting style and behaviors
that help in tailoring the treatment process.
Finally, standard parent-child interactions are observed
in the playroom so that the specific behaviors
that serve to maintain the child’s disruptive
behavior can be noted and the baseline data can be
charted.
Behavioral observations of the parent-child interactions
are recorded throughout treatment to
help the therapist determine parents’ skill acquisition and guide the course of treatment. Parents also
complete the child behavior rating scale regularly
during treatment to track the child’s changes at
home. PCIT ends when parents demonstrate mastery
of the interaction skills and the child’s behavior
is within normal limits. At the conclusion of treatment,
many measures are readministered to evaluate
outcome, including the extent of generalized
effects, and to provide a baseline for follow-up
booster sessions.