Adolescent psychotherapy process research: adaptation of the instrument APQ

Abstract The aim of this paper is to present the Brazilian version of the instrument APQ (Adolescent Psychotherapy Q-Set), including its translation and initial adaptation, followed by the construction of psychotherapy prototypes for psychoanalytic and cognitivebehavioral approaches. A total of 10 psychoanalytic and 10 cognitive-behavioral therapists were asked to classify the APQ items in relation to relevance to their theoretical model. Data were analyzed with factor analysis. The extraction of two factors explained 48.07% of the total variance. The Cronbach’s alpha for the psychoanalytic factor was 0.85 and for the cognitive-behavioral factor, 0.86. The former presented factor loadings ranging from .61 to .73, whilst the latter from .49 to 80. The prototypes were developed through linear regression calculations of each APQ item’s contribution to each of the factors. It was observed that the two prototypes adequately discriminated psychoanalytic and cognitive behavioral approaches, indicating that the APQ is an appropriate tool for research in psychotherapy.