Abstract
Group psychotherapy literature is unclear about what patient characteristics contribute to better and poorer outcome. This study examined pre-group therapy patient characteristics and their relationship to short-term group therapy outcome. A battery of outcome measurements was administered to 192 short-term group therapy patients before, after, and 4–6 months after their group experience. Three distinct outcome groups are defined: dropouts, low changers and high changers. Characteristics of each group are discussed. Aside from the traditionally important variables such as age and education, this study indicates that interpersonal variables (interpersonal sensitivity, distance/closeness to others, primary involvement with family) may be potentially important areas to pursue in screening and preparing patients for a group.
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Budman, S., Demby, A. & Randall, M. Short-term group psychotherapy: Who succeeds, who fails?. Group 4, 3–16 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01456623
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01456623