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Washington State Institute for Public Policy
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Partners for Change Outcome Management System (PCOMS) for youth

Children's Mental Health: Other
  Literature review updated July 2019.

Partners for Change Outcome Management System (PCOMS) is a tool for using systematic client feedback to facilitate routine monitoring and encourage therapeutic conversations about the client’s experience of therapy. Brief youth-appropriate feedback measures are completed by clients at the beginning and/or end of a therapy session. The brevity of measures is intended to allow for their routine and expected integration into therapy. This analysis includes studies that utilize PCOMS in a child or adolescent sample. In the included study, children in the intervention group received PCOMS as an adjunct to play-based therapy in a school counseling context for children with a range of presenting concerns or diagnoses, including anxiety, depression, attention difficulties, and externalizing behavior problems. Youth in the comparison group received play-based therapy in a school counseling context, without PCOMS.
 
ALL
META-ANALYSIS
CITATIONS

Meta-analysis is a statistical method to combine the results from separate studies on a program, policy, or topic to estimate its effect on an outcome. WSIPP systematically evaluates all credible evaluations we can locate on each topic. The outcomes measured are the program impacts measured in the research literature (for example, impacts on crime or educational attainment). Treatment N represents the total number of individuals or units in the treatment group across the included studies.

An effect size (ES) is a standard metric that summarizes the degree to which a program or policy affects a measured outcome. If the effect size is positive, the outcome increases. If the effect size is negative, the outcome decreases. See Estimating Program Effects Using Effect Sizes for additional information on how we estimate effect sizes.

The effect size may be adjusted from the unadjusted effect size estimated in the meta-analysis. Historically, WSIPP adjusted effect sizes to some programs based on the methodological characteristics of the study. For programs reviewed in 2024 or later, we do not make additional adjustments, and we use the unadjusted effect size whenever we run a benefit-cost analysis.

Research shows the magnitude of effects may change over time. For those effect sizes, we estimate outcome-based adjustments, which we apply between the first time ES is estimated and the second time ES is estimated. More details about these adjustments can be found in our Technical Documentation.

Meta-Analysis of Program Effects
Outcomes measured No. of effect sizes Treatment N Effect sizes (ES) and standard errors (SE) Unadjusted effect size (random effects model)
ES SE Age ES p-value
Externalizing behavior symptoms
Symptoms of externalizing behavior (e.g., aggressive, hostile, or disruptive behavior) measured on a validated scale.
 9 1 18 -0.600 0.339 9 -0.600 0.077
Internalizing symptoms
Symptoms of internalizing behavior (e.g., sadness, anxiety, or withdrawal) measured on a validated scale.
 9 1 18 -0.184 0.333 9 -0.184 0.579

Citations Used in the Meta-Analysis

Cooper, M., Duncan, B., Golden, S., & Toth, K. (2019). Systematic client feedback in therapy for children with psychological difficulties: Pilot cluster randomized controlled trial. Counseling Psychology Quarterly.