Therapeutic factors in spouse-abuse group treatment

Abstract Spouse abuse has been identified as a prevalent and devastating phenomena in American society. Group work with batterers is the treatment of choice for attempting to end abusive behavior. Therapeutic factors available to participants in group counseling could help batterers reverse abusive tendencies. This study examined 38 men's experiences of therapeutic factors in educational groups for batterers. Two factors, imparting of information and development of socializing techniques, were found to be predominant in the groups. Other factors thought to be important for abuse treatment (hope, universality, catharsis, family reenactment, altruism, interpersonal learning, modeling, and existential factors) were found to be minimally present in these groups. Chi-square analysis demonstrated a relationship between number of group meetings attended and the factors of group cohesion and universality, with group cohesion developing later and universality present earlier in the group process.

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