Doctorate of Clinical Psychology Research Portfolio

: 1) How has CBT been adapted for adolescents with co-morbid depression and chronic illness? A Scoping Review. 2) How can a sex offender programme adapted for people with learning disabilities better meet the needs of those with co-morbid autism? 3) Prerequisite skills for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) in adolescents.

Abstract

[Main Research Project] Background: Developmental changes in metacognition throughout adolescence may impact the ability to access Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT). Mental health symptoms are associated with lower levels of the skills considered important as pre-requisite for CBT. We aimed to develop and validate a CBT skills task to assess pre-requisite skills in adolescents and to use this measure to investigate the relationship between mental health problems and pre-requisite CBT skills.
Method: The vignette-based CBT skills task was developed and piloted with a group of young people (n=7). Participants (n=100) aged 12-16 (M = 13.58; SD = 1.16) completed The CBT skills task, Emotional Awareness Questionnaire (EAQ-30) and Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS). Internal consistency and convergent validity of the CBT skills task were examined. Standard regression explored the relationship between mental health and pre-requisite CBT skills.
Results: The task was feasible and demonstrated excellent internal consistency for total scores, but some individual test items demonstrated lower reliability across vignettes. For convergent validity, findings revealed association between two of the EAQ-30 subscales. There was no association between depression and anxiety and performance on the CBT skills task.
Conclusions: The CBT skills task showed initial psychometric strengths and weaknesses. More development is required to enhance internal consistency and explore convergent validity. The current findings do not support previous research that has found greater mental health symptoms predict poorer pre-requisite skills in children and adolescents. Future research is needed to explore the association of mental health and pre-requisite skills using a psychometrically sound measure.

Date of Award	8 Sept 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Maria Loades (Supervisor), Ailsa Russell (Supervisor), Cathy Randle-Phillips (Supervisor) & Cara Roberts-Collins (Supervisor)