Abstract
Clinical psychological scientists have spent decades attempting to understand “what works for whom” in the context of youth psychotherapy, toward the longstanding goal of personalizing psychosocial interventions to fit individual needs and characteristics. However, as the articles in this Special Issue jointly underscore, more than 50 years of psychotherapy research has yet to help us realize this goal. In this introduction to the special issue, we outline how and why “aspiration-method mismatches” have hampered progress toward identifying moderators of youth psychotherapy; emphasize the need to embrace etiological complexity and scientific humility in pursuing new methodological solutions and propose individual and structural strategies for better-aligning clinical research methods with the goal of personalizing mental health care for youth with diverse identities and treatment needs.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 443-449 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2021 |
Funding
JLS receives grant support from the National Institutes of Health (DP5OD28123), the Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation, the American Psychological Foundation, the Society for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Limbix, Inc., and the Upswing Fund for Adolescent Mental Health. JLS and MCM have co-authored and receive royalties from sales of a therapeutic workbook for adolescents, published by New Harbinger. JLS is under contract with Oxford University Press to co-edit a book on low-intensity mental health interventions for youth. The authors report no other financial conflicts.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Clinical Psychology