The Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Children and Adolescents (UP-C/A) is effective in treating a variety of psychopathologies in youth; however, this effectiveness has not been examined with an idiographic measure, such as the Top Problems (TPA) assessment. Participants were youth aged 6-17 (M = 11.86, N = 128) who received at least eight sessions of UP-C/A for a primary emotional disorder. We examined change in mean TPA ratings between the first and last sessions of the UP-C/A. We also calculated the reliable change index (RCI) for the difference scores of both informants. Lastly, we examined differences in depression and anxiety symptom severity measured by the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale across the UP-C/A using paired samples t-tests. We found that youth-reported mean TPA ratings significantly decreased by an average of 2.89 units (t(127) = 16.25, p < .001) and parent-reported TPA ratings significantly decreased by an average of 2.96 units (t(127) = 15.46, p < .001). Results of the RCI indicated that 87.5% of youth and 89.8% of parents reported a reliable decrease in TPA ratings. Lastly, depression and anxiety symptom severity decreased significantly from pre- to post-treatment (p's < .001). Overall, these findings not only speak to the ability of idiographic measures, such as the TPA, to capture change in severity over the course of treatment but also speak to the effectiveness of the UP-C/A in treating emotional disorders in youth.
