Objectives: Currently only few instruments exist to evaluate psychotherapy for children and adolescents (Mattejat & Remschmidt, 1993). This study presents the development of a new instrument: the "Psychotherapie Basisdokumentation für Kinder und Jugendliche: Psy-BaDo-KJ" (Winter, 2002). This instrument assesses individual therapy goals and the outcome of therapy on the basis of information from children and adolescents, parents and therapists.
Methods: We based our instrument on a questionnaire originally developed for adults: the "Psychotherapie Basisdokumentation" (Psy-BaDo, Heuft & Senf, 1998). To develop the new instrument, we conducted expert interviews that were then analysed qualitatively. Between January 2002 and June 2003 all inpatients (> or = 14 years) as well as their parents and therapists were given questionnaires. To date, data for 35 patients have been evaluated and included in the current study. The diagnoses were recorded according to ICD-10 (Remschmidt et al., 2002).
Results: The study shows that patients, parents and therapists usually formulate two or three individual therapy goals but with different content. While the patients mention primarily goals focussed on somatic health, the focus of parents and therapists is predominantly on psychological and mental health. According to the outcome of therapy, the level of agreement among patients, parents and therapists is high. Patients tend to be more optimistic than their parents and therapists.
Conclusions: The "Psychotherapie Basisdokumentation für Kinder und Jugendliche" (Psy-BaDo-KJ) is a new instrument and can be used efficiently for quality assurance and evaluation of psychotherapy for children and adolescents.