Relational Cultural Theory and Intervention Approaches with Adolescent Girls: An Integrative Review

Relational Cultural Theory (RCT) offers a feminist, relationally-centered approach to therapy and social work practice, which is focused on the unique developmental experiences of girls, women, and individuals from traditionally underrepresented or marginalized groups. Much of the theoretical and intervention research on this model has focused on adult women, with less attention devoted to RCT's application with adolescent girls. This integrative literature review synthesizes qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, and case study research on RCT to assess: 1) how RCT theoretical tenets have been translated into intervention strategies with adolescent girls, and 2) the degree to which RCT intervention research includes experiences of girls from diverse and underrepresented groups. Five electronic databases were searched through August 2023. Following deduplication and screening for inclusion/exclusion, 12 studies were retained for inclusion in this review. Analysis revealed four core RCT concepts that were linked with therapeutic intervention components across all included studies: mutual empathy, authenticity, empowerment, and the overall strengthening and deepening of relational connections. Over half of included studies reported samples that were over 50% girls of color, and/or having an expressed study purpose focused on girls from a diverse or underrepresented group. Practice implications for work with adolescent girls are discussed.