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A comparison of treatment completers and non‐completers of an in‐patient treatment programme for male personality‐disordered offenders
Author(s) -
McMurran Mary,
Huband Nick,
Duggan Conor
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
psychology and psychotherapy: theory, research and practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.102
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 2044-8341
pISSN - 1476-0835
DOI - 10.1348/147608308x288762
Subject(s) - social problem solving , psychology , personality , clinical psychology , treatment and control groups , anxiety , psychiatry , developmental psychology , medicine , social psychology
Background . In the treatment of offenders with personality disorders, one matter that requires attention is the rate of treatment non‐completion. This is important as it has cost‐efficiency and negative outcome implications. Method . We compared the characteristics of those who participated in a personality disorder treatment programme divided into three groups: Group 1, treatment completers ( N = 21); Group 2, those expelled for rule breaking ( N = 16); and Group 3, those removed because they were not engaging in treatment ( N = 19). We hypothesized that, compared with the other two groups, Group 2 would score higher on the impulsive/careless style scale, and that those in Group 3 would score higher on the avoidant style scale of the social problem‐solving inventory‐revised (SPSI‐R). Further, we hypothesized that high anxiety would be associated with treatment non‐completion in both the groups. Results . These differences were not found. However, in combining both groups of non‐completers for comparison, completers were shown to score significantly higher on SPSI‐R rational problem solving and significantly lower on SPSI‐R impulsive/careless style. Conclusion . Findings suggest that teaching impulsive people a rational approach to social problem solving may reduce their level of non‐completion.