The therapeutic alliance in child inpatient treatment: Development and initial validation of a family engagement questionnaire

This article presents the development and initial validation of an instrument to measure therapeutic engagement in the context of child and adolescent inpatient treatment - the Family Engagement Questionnaire. Despite considerable adult literature on therapeutic alliance and patient engagement, there has been relatively little work done in this area in child and adolescent psychiatry. The general literature on therapeutic alliance is reviewed and the clinical and scientific issues particular to this work in child psychiatry are highlighted, including the need to measure both parent and child engagement with the ward team. The successful development of a clinician questionnaire rating is described along with initial validity studies. The measure we describe is practicable and has the potential to be used both clinically and in further studies of therapeutic alliance within the inpatient context.