Validation of the client satisfaction questionnaire: a pilot psychometric analysis in Portuguese routine practice

Treatment satisfaction has been found to have good therapeutic results in psychotherapy, and the 18-item version of the client satisfaction questionnaire (CSQ-18) is one of the most widely used measures to evaluate it. This study sought to carry out a pilot analysis of the psychometric’s properties and factorial structure, as well as validate the CSQ-18’s applicability to the Portuguese population within the context of routine clinical practice. It also sought to explore the association that treatment satisfaction has with general symptoms, therapeutic alliance, and expectations at an early stage of psychotherapy. The sample comprised 98 clients who were undergoing psychotherapy in a routine practice context. All these clients completed self-reported measures for symptom assessment and therapeutic relationship, namely the clinical outcome routine evaluation-outcome measure, working alliance inventory, and credibility/expectancy questionnaire, in addition to the CSQ-18. The semi-confirmatory factorial analysis demonstrated that the CSQ-18 has good psychometric properties and revealed an association between treatment satisfaction and therapeutic alliance. The results corroborate the findings of other versions of the measure and present a good adjustment model for the semi-confirmatory factorial analysis.