Citation

Brown PD, O'Leary KD, Feldbau SR. J. Fam. Violence 1997; 12(4): 365-387.

Affiliation

Psychology Department, The University at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York, 11794-2500

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1023/A:1021906825073

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Demographic factors and levels of psychological and physical aggression were assessed as predictors of dropout for those who participated in a group treatment program for maritally discordant couples reporting husband to wife physical aggression. In addition, follow-up assessments with dropouts were conducted to obtain clients' reasons for termination. Demographic variables and levels of physical aggression did not predict dropout; however, higher levels of psychological aggression did. The most frequently cited reasons for dropout by participants were treatment-related issues. Specifically, clients reported that the group format did not enable them to address their individual couple issues. Regarding future treatment planning, our findings indicate that in cases where men are severely psychologically abusive, individual sessions may be warranted that precede or are in conjunction with couple sessions. Also, it is as important to target women's psychological aggression as it is to target men's psychological aggression. Finally, our findings indicate that treatment programs should utilize some mechanism that allows for more personalized attention to each couple, such as an individual couples format and/or an individual supplement to the group format.