Working Alliance Predicts Symptomatic Improvement in Public Hospital-Delivered Psychotherapy in Nairobi, Kenya

• Objective: Although patient-therapist collaboration (working alliance) has been studied extensively in Europe and America, it is unknown to what extent the importance of working alliance for psychotherapy outcome generalizes to lower-and middle-income countries. Additionally, there is a need for more studies on the alliance using methods that are robust to confounders of its effect on outcome. Method: In this study, 345 outpatients seeking care at the 2 public psychiatric hospitals in Nairobi, Kenya, filled out the Session Alliance Inventory (SAI) and the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) during each session. The effect of alliance on next-session psychological distress was modeled using the random intercept cross-lagged panel model, which estimates a cross-lagged panel model on within- and between-subjects disaggregated data. Results: Changes in the working alliance from session to session significantly predicted change in psychological distress by the next session, with an increase of 1 point of the SAI in a given session resulting in a decrease of 1.27 points on the CORE-OM by the next session (SE = 60, 95% confidence interval [-2.44, -.10]). This finding represents a medium-sized standardized regression coefficient of between.16 and.21. Results were generally robust to sensitivity tests for stationarity, missing data assumptions, and measurement error. Conclusion: Results affirm cross-cultural stability of the session-by-session reciprocal effects model of alliance and psychological distress-symptoms as seen in a Kenyan psychiatric outpatient sample, using the latest developments in cross-lagged panel modeling. A limitation of the study is its naturalistic design and lack of control over several variables.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi -- Tillämpad psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology -- Applied Psychology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

working alliance; outcome; cross-cultural psychology; cross-lagged panel model

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