The Initial Psychotherapy Interview with Adolescent Clients

Initial psychotherapy sessions with adolescents can be very challenging due to the need to balance assessment, relationship building, caretaker/parent management, and case formulation with a client population that sometimes has little motivation for psychotherapy. This article combines empirical evidence, theoretical knowledge, and clinical experience to describe strategies for how psychotherapists can prepare themselves for initial psychotherapy sessions and manage tasks associated with five stages of the clinical interview: (a) the introduction, (b) the opening, (c) the body, (d) the closing, and (e) termination. Using case vignettes and short examples, there is an emphasis on how psychotherapists can develop and maintain a strong therapeutic alliance while simultaneously helping adolescent clients focus on psychotherapy tasks and goals. The overall goal of this article is to help psychotherapists smoothly navigate the potentially stormy stages of the initial clinical interview with adolescents.     

The gray area: exploring attitudes toward infidelity and the development of the Perceptions of Dating Infidelity Scale

Prior research has distinguished between emotional versus sexual infidelity. Two studies examined the development of the Perceptions of Dating Infidelity Scale (PDIS) to assess attitudes toward specific behaviors that constitute these types of infidelity in romantic relationships. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated three factors to the scale: Ambiguous, Deceptive, and Explicit behaviors. In both studies, there were gender differences on ratings of the behaviors. The construct validity of the scale was assessed with measures of sociosexual orientation, guilt, and coping with unwanted sexual situations. It was found that the Ambiguous behaviors were positively correlated with avoidance of unwanted sexual situations, while the Deceptive and Explicit scales were positively correlated with guilt and avoidance and negatively associated with an unrestricted sociosexual orientation and acting on attractions toward friends.