Therapist self-disclosure to child patients.
The primary aim of this study was to investigate therapists' use of self-disclosure with their child patients. A sample of 126 mental health professionals with an average of 20 years of clinical experience completed the Therapist-to-Child Disclosure Inventory (TCDI), a 42-item Likert-type measure created for this study. Therapist self-disclosure was examined using three principle dimensions: the mean frequency of specific disclosures, the degree to which child patients solicit these disclosures, and the extent to which specific self-disclosures are seen as advancing treatment aims for child patients. Results indicate that therapists reveal personal information to their child patients infrequently, that children almost never solicit personal disclosures from their therapists, and that therapists perceive self-disclosure as seldom advancing treatment aims for child therapy. Future studies, the authors suggest, should examine the differences between therapists' use of self-involving disclosures to children and their use of factual self-disclosures.
Capobianco
Joseph
J
Program in Clinical Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University, Box 57, 525 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA. jac34@columbia.edu
Farber
Barry A
BA
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D002666:Psychology, Child / Q000379:methods*; D011594:Psychometrics; D012650:Self Disclosure; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires