Therapy: A Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis (27 studies, N 1702) examined (a) the effects of homework assignments on treatment outcome and (b) the relationship between homework compliance and therapy outcome. Results of the pri-mary meta-analyses indicated a weighted mean effect size (r) of.36 for homework effects and.22 for home-work compliance. A moderator analysis (chosen on a priori grounds) was also conducted by partitioning the sample of effect size estimations first according to the sample problem type, according to the type of home-work activity administered, and according to the source and time of homework compliance assessment. We hope that the focus of future research will now be diverted from general questions of the benefit of in-cluding homework in therapy, to more specific ques-tions regarding the relative effectiveness of different types of homework assignments for different client problems. Key words: homework assignments, meta-analysis, outcome, cognitive-behavioral therapy. [Clin Psychol Sci Prac 7:189–202, 2000] Therapeutic homework emerged as an integral compo-nent of therapy with the advent of Kelly’s (1955) fixed role therapy. The regular use of homework in behavioral, cognitive, and rational-emotive therapy formulations fur-ther increased homework’s role in therapy (e.g., Beck