Abstract

Objective: The empirical study of member-group mutual influence in group therapy is an emerging area of study. However, few replications have tried to generalize prior findings related to mutual influence. The aim of this study is to conceptually replicate the longitudinal group actor-partner interdependence models (LGAPIM) employed by Lo Coco et al. (2019) measuring how mutual influence and other factors affect the codevelopment of the group therapeutic relationships. Method: 343 clients were included in this archival analysis. Group Questionnaire (GQ) main subscales, positive bond (PB), positive work (PW), and negative relationship (NR), were gathered from early, middle, and late timepoints. These timepoints were used to generate intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and LGAPIM models for the GQ subscales. Results: Significant and increasing ICC over time for PB, PW, and NR support codevelopment; however, mutual influence was not significant for PB or PW. There was significant mutual influence between the middle and late stages on the NR subscale. All relationship constructs showed significant similarity, stability, and residual correlation of individual member and the other group member scores. Conclusions: The current findings support codevelopment of group therapeutic relationships, replicating parts of Lo Coco and colleagues' (2019) findings. However, the role of mutual influence was mixed. For PB and PW, we did not find mutual influence, in contrast with Lo Coco et al.'s (2019) findings. With NR, the pattern of mutual influence was different than Lo Coco et al. (2019), partially replicating their results. Our results on similarity, stability, and residual correlations were all significant, in contrast to Lo Coco et al. (2019). This underscores the importance of replication and power when examining mutual influence.

Degree

MS

College and Department

Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Psychology

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2023-06-01

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd13262

Keywords

group psychotherapy, therapeutic relationship, actor-partner interdependence model

Language

english

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