Psychologically Referred Adolescents: Demographics of a Clinical Population

Abstract

Previous research on psychological intervention with adolescents has focused on psychiatric, inpatient populations, or the population of adolescents that exhibit serious debilitating psychological disorders. In contrast, this study considers adolescent clients of private practice psychologists. The research explores demographic variables associated with this population of adolescents; included are age, sex, nature and severity of the presenting problem(s), family marital status, siblings, school progress, therapy goals, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III, 1980) diagnosis, and assessment characteristics. The findings reveal that in the sample studied early adolescence is the stage at which most adolescents are seen by private practitioners. Trends and conclusions regarding the data are presented and discussed.