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Defection, Termination, and Continuation in Family and Individual Therapy
Author(s) -
SHAPIRO RODNEY J.,
BUDMAN SIMON H.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
family process
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.011
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1545-5300
pISSN - 0014-7370
DOI - 10.1111/j.1545-5300.1973.00055.x
Subject(s) - continuation , family therapy , treatment modality , session (web analytics) , psychology , drop out , medicine , psychotherapist , surgery , world wide web , computer science , economics , demographic economics , programming language
Patients applying to a child study center over a period of one year were referred for either individual or family evaluation and therapy. The present study focused on comparative rates of defection (failure to appear for first session), premature termination (one to three sessions), and continuation (more than three sessions) of treatment. Structured interviews were conducted on the telephone to explore the reasons for termination or continued treatment. Three main findings emerged: (a) Drop‐out rates for family therapy are significantly different than for individual treatment; (b) Major reasons for terminating or continuing treatment, in either modality, seem related to patients evaluations of their therapists; (c) Fathers of patients play a pivotal role in determining whether families terminate or continue in treatment.