Validity of a Simplified Target Complaints Measure

Abstract

Target complaints measures have been used frequently as measures of psychotherapy outcome, but lack adequate concurrent validity data and suffer a number of methodological problems. In the present study, a simplified written version of a client- and therapist-rated target complaints measure was completed along with a variety of other commonly used outcome measures on 138 clients at the beginning of psychotherapy and then at 2 months' follow-up. Although client and therapist severity ratings were positively correlated, there was some inconsistency between the content of client and therapist complaints. Strong support was found for the concurrent validity of the target complaints measures. Both client and therapist ratings of target complaints significantly correlated with measures of anxiety, psychological distress, symptom severity, and client satisfaction. However, the magnitude of the correlations suggested that target complaints measures offered unique problem information in addition to the other outcome measures and were an economical adjunct.