Loading
Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Journal article
Frontiers in Psychology · July 22, 2026
Early or partial results. Treat as a signal, not a conclusion.
This is a Delphi-based protocol development and validation study that achieved expert consensus on a Solution-Focused Group Therapy program for Chinese adolescents with anxiety and depression. The work demonstrates preliminary content validity and theoretical plausibility but does not establish clinical efficacy or safety; the authors explicitly call for rigorous RCT testing before implementation.
Two-round Delphi consensus study with systematic literature review and semi-structured interviews. Expert panel: 20 experts in psychiatry, clinical psychology and education in central China; practitioner input: 10 frontline practitioners. Target population: Chinese adolescents with anxiety and depression in high-pressure educational systems.. Intervention: Solution-Focused Group Therapy (SFGT) program comprising eight functional units, designed to address interpersonal dysfunctions; includes Small Change Hypothesis (adapted from Miracle Question) and exclusion of competitive tasks.. Central China.
Both consultation rounds achieved 100% response rate from 20-expert panel with expert authority coefficient Cr = 0.90 Kendall's W increased from 0.211 to 0.251 (P < 0.001) between rounds, indicating improved consensus All final-round coefficients of variation fell below 0.25 threshold
Safety was not reported in the material analysed. Check the source before drawing any conclusion about harm.
This protocol represents a theoretically plausible, expert-consensus therapy intervention tailored to the Chinese cultural and educational context. However, clinicians should not implement this program based on this evidence alone; efficacy, safety, and mechanism of action require empirical validation through RCTs before adoption in clinical practice.
A Delphi consensus study developing and validating a therapy protocol through expert panels, lacking empirical clinical outcomes and requiring future RCT testing to establish efficacy.
As stated by the source record.
Quoted from the source exactly as published.
This protocol represents a theoretically plausible, expert-consensus therapy intervention tailored to the Chinese cultural and educational context. However, clinicians should not implement this program based on this evidence alone; efficacy, safety, and mechanism of action require empirical validation through RCTs before adoption in clinical practice.
Graded across the dimensions that decide whether you should act, each from what the source actually supports. There is no single score, and where a dimension was not assessed it says so.
Objectives To develop and validate a standardized, de-pathologized Solution-Focused Group Therapy (SFGT) program specifically designed to address interpersonal dysfunctions among Chinese adolescents with anxiety and depression. Methods A two-round Delphi method was employed to integrate multidisciplinary perspectives. An initial set of intervention components was developed based on the systematic literature review and semi-structured interviews with 10 frontline practitioners. This was followed by two iterative evaluation rounds involving a purposive panel of 20 experts in psychiatry, clinical psychology and education, all situated within the context of the high-pressure educational system in central China. Consensus was quantified using the expert positivity coefficient, authority coefficient ( Cr ) and Kendall’s coefficient of concordance ( W ), with refinements guided by the principles of clinical safety, cognitive adaptation and ethical boundaries. Results Both consultation rounds achieved a 100% response rate, yielding a high expert authority coefficient ( Cr = 0.90). The consensus trajectory showed improvement, with Kendall’s W increasing from 0.211 to 0.251 ( P 0.001) and all final-round coefficients of variation ( CV ) falling below the 0.25 threshold. Key qualitative modifications included the exclusion of competitive tasks to mitigate acute rejection sensitivity and the reframing of the Miracle Question into the Small Change Hypothesis to accommodate the diminished cognitive processing speed characteristic of depressive states. The final protocol comprises eight functional units structured to foster interpersonal resilience. Conclusion The developed SFGT program demonstrates preliminary content validity and theoretical plausibility. The protocol is hypothesized to activate therapeutic factors such as universality and corrective emotional experiences, which may contribute to reducing learned helplessness and mitigating social stigma among adolescents in the Chinese cultural context. However, empirical validation of these hypothesized mechanisms—including clinical efficacy, dose–response relationships, and long-term interpersonal outcomes—requires rigorous testing through multi-center randomized controlled trials and implementation studies.
Taken from the source record, never inferred. Follow any of these and new work involving them reaches your briefing.