Measurement-based care, an evidence-based practice endorsed by the American Psychological Association, is underpinned by routine assessment supporting a data-driven approach to clinical decision making. Nonetheless, there is a need for brief, nonproprietary measures assessing non-symptom-based outcomes. The present study examined the psychometric…

We assessed the psychometric properties of the visual analog scale (VAS) form of the Outcome Rating Scale (ORS) using item response theory (IRT) with a sample of 2,109 Canadian counseling clients. Findings indicate that the ORS was unidimensional and that the equal-interval assumption was not tenable for the VAS.

We examined the validity of the Shorter Psychotherapy and Counseling Evaluation (Halstead, Leach, & Rust, 2007). Results supported incremental predictive validity (up to 12%) over the Outcome Questionnaire--10.2 (OQ-10.2), predictive validity with the Outcome Questionnaire--45 and the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems--32, and convergent…

The current study investigated the sensitivity to change of the Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms-34 (CCAPS-34), a multidimensional measure designed to assess the mental health problems common in college students across seven domains. The results suggest that the CCAPS-34 is able to capture change taking place during treatment.

Researchers who need to explain treatment effects to laypeople can translate Cohen's effect size (standardized mean difference) to a common language effect size--a probability of a random observation from one population being larger than a random observation from the other population. This common language effect size can be extended to represent…

Using effect size results from our meta-analysis for the treatment of anxiety in school-aged youth, the practical and technical aspects of five commonly used anxiety instruments were analyzed, and effect size estimates compared to indicate the best choices for use in anxiety outcome research.

Data from clinical and nonclinical samples ("Ns" = 2,096, 618) were used to evaluate and replicate the measurement structure of the Outcome Questionnaire-45.2. Different measurement models and invariance tests were evaluated and the best psychometric support was found for a shortened measure of two factors: overall maladjustment and…

This study investigated the Outcome Questionnaire's (OQ-45) factor structure and demonstrated the use of factor mixture modeling (FMM) for the purpose of score validation. OQ-45 scores did not fit the one-class, one- and three-factor models. Use of FMM to identify a two-class model is detailed. Implications for OQ-45 users are provided. (Contains…

In this article, the authors present a multilevel (or hierarchical linear) model that illustrates issues in the application of the model to data from meta-analytic studies. In doing so, several issues are discussed that typically arise in the course of a meta-analysis. These include the presence of non-zero between-study variability, how multiple…