With the rise in efforts to evaluate the quality of mental health care and its outcomes, the measurement of change has become an important topic. This paper tracks the creation of a new instrument designed to assess psychotherapy outcome. The Outcome Questionnaire (OQ) was designed to include items relevant to three domains central to mental health: subjective discomfort, interpersonal relations, and social role performance. This study describes the theoretical development and psychometric properties of the OQ. Psychometric properties were assessed using clinical, community, and undergraduate samples. The OQ appears to have high reliability and evidence to suggest good concurrent and construct validity of the total score. The data presented show that it distinguishes patient from non‐patient samples, is sensitive to change, and correlates with other measures of patient distress.

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This study examined the definitional and statistical overlap among 4 key group therapeutic relationship constructs-group climate, cohesion, alliance, and empathy-across member-member, member-group, and member-leader relationships. Three multilevel structural equation models were tested using selfreport measures completed by 662 participants from 111 counseling center and personal growth groups. As hypothesized, almost all measures of therapeutic relationship were significantly correlated. Hypothesized 1-factor, 2-factor (Working and Bonding factors), and 3-factor (Member, Leader, and Group factors) models did not fit the data adequately. An exploratory model with Bonding, Working, and Negative factors provided the best fit to the data. Group members distinguished among relationships primarily according to relationship quality rather than the status or role of others (i.e., leader, member, or whole group).

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