Retraction of Kivlighan et al. (2016).

Reports the retraction of "Working alliance, real relationship, session quality, and client improvement in psychodynamic psychotherapy: A longitudinal actor partner interdependence model" by Dennis M. Kivlighan Jr., Clara E. Hill, Charles J. Gelso and Ellen Baumann (, 2016[Mar], Vol 63[2], 149-161). The following article is being retracted (https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000134). This retraction is at the request of coauthors Kivlighan, Hill, and Gelso after the results of an investigation by the University of Maryland Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB found that the study included data from between one and four therapy clients of the Maryland Psychotherapy Clinic and Research Laboratory (MPCRL) who either had not been asked to provide consent or had withdrawn consent for their data to be included in the research. Baumann was not responsible for obtaining and verifying participant consent but agreed to the retraction of this article. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2015-57048-001.) We used the Actor Partner Interdependence Model (APIM; Kashy & Kenny, 2000) to examine the dyadic associations of 74 clients and 23 therapists in their evaluations of working alliance, real relationship, session quality, and client improvement over time in ongoing psychodynamic or interpersonal psychotherapy. There were significant actor effects for both therapists and clients, with the participant's own ratings of working alliance and real relationship independently predicting their own evaluations of session quality. There were significant client partner effects, with clients' working alliance and real relationship independently predicting their therapists' evaluations of session quality. The client partner real relationship effect was stronger in later sessions than in earlier sessions. Therapists' real relationship ratings (partner effect) were a stronger predictor of clients' session quality ratings in later sessions than in earlier sessions. Therapists' working alliance ratings (partner effect) were a stronger predictor of clients' session quality ratings when clients made greater improvement than when clients made lesser improvement. For clients' session outcome ratings, there were complex three-way interactions, such that both Client real relationship and working alliance interacted with client improvement and time in treatment to predict clients' session quality. These findings strongly suggest both individual and partner effects when clients and therapists evaluate psychotherapy process and outcome. Implications for research and practice are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).