Predicting youth mental health treatment dropout : an examination of the role of treatment adherence and therapist competences

Dropout from youth mental health services is a significant concern that has been widely studied in the field. Previous research has examined a variety of client factors (age, gender, etc.) and some therapy process factors (perceived burden of treatment, alliance, etc.) that are potentially related to therapy dropout; however, the results are far from conclusive. With data gathered as part of a previous randomized controlled trial, multilevel modelling was used to examine the extent to which child age, race/ethnicity, problem area, income, baseline symptom severity, therapist discipline, and the therapy process factors of therapeutic alliance, adherence, and competence are predictive of dropout. Results indicated that of these factors, only problem area was a significant predictor. Caregiver-rated therapeutic alliance and race/ethnicity also approached significance