Exploring alliance-outcome associations in a combined mental health and academic counselling setting for at-risk students: The differential role of alliance components, personality, gender and pre-treatment severity

This study investigated the differential role of therapeutic alliance components in predicting mental health and academic performance outcomes of a combined academic and personal counselling initiative. The study also explored the role of pre-treatment severity and gender in alliance formation, as well as the moderating role of personality on alliance-outcome associations in at-risk students at a Canadian University. Pre- and post-measures of mental health (SF-36 Mental Health Composite Summary) and academic performance (GPA) were obtained for 78 at-risk students enrolled in the counselling initiative. Criteria for risk included academic struggles, struggles with mental health, or both. Personality and demographic variables were obtained prior to the start of counselling and strength of therapeutic alliance was measured between sessions 3 and 6. Results showed that while all of the alliance components significantly predicted increases in student GPA, the task subscale predicted increases in mental health. Personality type preference was not found to moderate these associations. Furthermore, gender and pre-symptom severity were not related to early alliance formation. The findings support the importance of the therapeutic alliance across counselling contexts and suggest that relationship oriented counselling initiatives may support both academic performance as well as psychological well-being in at-risk students. Implications are discussed.