Child and adolescent disorders: Issues for psychosocial treatment research

The recent efforts of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to encourage child and adolescent research are described, including the creation of the Child and Adolescent Psychosocial Interventions Research Consortium as a forum to identify, delineate, and examine research needs in psychosocial treatments. This is followed by a summary review of the contents of this special issue: history of psychotherapy research with children, developmental issues, diagnosis and assessment, ecological and cultural validity, laboratory versus clinic research outcomes, cognitive behavioral treatments for childhood disorders, nontraditional treatments, and overview and future directions. Finally, methodological issues that need to be addressed in future research are discussed, such as the developmental level of children in treatment research, issues of comorbidity, family involvement, and duration of treatment.