The Group Psychotherapy Literature 1967

Abstract

This paper describes therapeutic foci for group intervention with traumatized adolescents. These include targeting the symptoms of trauma, helping members to weave a coherent, temporally ordered narrative of the event, providing psycho–education, and addressing bereavement issues and secondary adversities, all ultimately aimed at helping the adolescents proceed with development. The particular benefits of group are highlighted and clinical vignettes, drawn from the aftermath of September 11, are presented to illustrate these concepts.     

"I'm not the only one!" group therapy with older children and adolescents who have learning disabilities

Children and adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) are vulnerable to psychosocial difficulties. Both the detrimental impact of LD on social adjustment and the significance of peer relations for developmental needs make group therapy a natural intervention. Despite modifications that are required due to their cognitive deficits, many students with LD fit the criteria and can benefit from group psychotherapy. In this paper, a model of group therapy for older children and adolescents with LD is presented. The approach is informed by a combination of self psychology, mutual aid, and interpersonal group therapy. The leaders use special techniques to accommodate the LD and to foster the group process. Examples are presented to illustrate the approach.     

Father absence and adolescent "problem behaviors": alcohol consumption, drug use and sexual activity

Among the issues faced by adolescents are problems relating to alcohol consumption, drug use, and sexual behavior. A survey of 813 adolescents found that adolescents are most likely to discuss these problems with peers and least likely to discuss them with parents, especially fathers. However, father absence from the home resulted in greater use of and problems with alcohol, marijuana, and sexual activity. This was the case especially for boys. The results obtained underscore the significance of the father as a key figure in the transmission of values and as a deterrent to certain behaviors. The results point to adolescents from fatherless homes, especially boys, as being at risk for problems in the areas noted. This suggests that community agencies providing services to adolescents should make special efforts to incorporate into their programs specially designed services to meet the particular needs of this group. Aspects of such programs are discussed.     

Are critical items "critical" for the MMPI-A

This article examines one aspect of the potential usefulness of critical items to the: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory -Adolescent (MMPI-A). Endorsement frequency data are presented on the Koss-Butcher (1973) and the Lachar-Wrobeli (1979) critical items for Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) adult normative and clinical samples and for MMPI-A adolescent normative and clinical samples. Adolescents in both normal and clinical samples endorse critical items with a higher frequency than do normal adults. Further, results demonstrated that significant differences were uniformly found between the endorsement frequencies for normative versus clinical subjects for the MMPI-2 samples, whereas similar comparisons for the MMPI-A samples typically showed that adolescents in clinical setting did not endorse critical items more frequently than normal adolescents. These findings indicate that it may be difficult to construct critical item lists for adolescents based on the type of empirical methodology used with adults in which items are selected based on endorsement frequency differences found between comparison group. Beyond the issue of the technical difficulty in creating a critical item list for adolescents, several conceptual concerns are raised regarding the application of critical items to the MMPI-A. It was noted that the concept of "critical items" has not been we11 defined, and both the reliability and validity of critical items may be limited in adolescent populations.     

Counselling, support and advice: The adolescent viewpoint

Few discussions on counselling pay more than lip service to what adolescents actually want. Data presented on the preferences of adolescents with regard to helping services show that no one method of providing help would be adequate. An indication of the number of relatively Isolated and unsupported adolescents is given, suggesting that 20-40% of young people lack a regular source of advice or understanding. Professional and official sources of advice are rarely used, and are not likely to be until they improve both their accessibility and image in the eyes of youth.     

The "REST" program: a new treatment system for the oppositional defiant adolescent

This study compared the REST (Real Economy System for Teens) program with traditional talk therapy in the treatment of oppositional defiant adolescents. The REST program uses rules for five target behaviors: room care, personal hygiene, completion of chores, abusiveness, and safety violations. Objective measures and subjective parental ratings were taken. Twenty-five adolescents were assigned to each therapy group. In the REST program the adolescent was provided with only food and shelter. The adolescent had to earn money through the REST allowance program to pay for everything else. Earning the allowance was made contingent upon compliance with all rules for the five target behaviors. The results showed significantly greater improvement on all target behaviors for the REST program than for traditional therapy. In addition, parents of adolescents in the REST group reported that their adolescents seemed happier, more relaxed, and closer to them.     

Children’s and Adolescents’ Conceptions of Happiness at School and Its Relation with Their Own Happiness and Their Academic Performance

Previous research on children’s and adolescents’ well-being at school has been focused on the possible determinants. However, no previous research has analysed children’s and adolescents’ lay-beliefs or conceptualizations of happiness at school. In the present work, we studied children’s (N = 104, 9–10-year-olds) and adolescents’ (N = 113, 15–16-year-olds) conceptualizations of happiness at school and its link with self-reported happiness (assessed 3 months later) and academic achievement (assessed 7 months later). For both samples, seven conceptualizations emerged: happiness as ‘being with friends’, ‘being praised’, ‘getting good grades’, ‘learning’, ‘leisure’, ‘enjoyment’, and ‘helping’. Age differences appeared for the conceptualizations of ‘being friends’ and ‘helping’, as children mentioned significantly more the former and adolescents the latter. No gender differences emerged. For adolescents, the conceptualizations of happiness at school as ‘being with friends’, ‘being praised’, ‘helping’, and not ‘having leisure time’ were positively related to self-reported happiness, which was positively related to academic achievement. For children, none of the conceptualizations were positively related to self-reported happiness. The conceptualization of happiness as ‘learning’ was positively related to academic achievement. The results are discussed in regards to their implications for children’s and adolescents’ well-being at school.     

Cognitive development and aspects of adolescent sexuality

Difficulty with adjustment to sexuality by adolescents has been of increasing concern to both educators and human service professionals in recent years. The cognitive development and behavior of adolescents as it pertains to sexuality and the implications for helping them overcome maladaptive sexual behavior is discussed.     

Adolescents least able to cope: How do they respond to their stresses?

This paper reports the coping strategies characterising self-professed weak copers. In order to do so it examines strategies reported by a subset of a sample of 976 adolescents, as measured by the Adolescent Coping Scale. What is of interest in this investigation are the coping strategies of the most vulnerable adolescent group. Such information would be of great value to those in the helping professions working with adolescents. The results indicate that the least able copers used, at least sometimes, non-productive strategies such as tension reduction, self-blame, ignore, keep to self and, most noticeably, worry and wishful thinking. However, a range of productive strategies was also used at least sometimes, including problem-solving, working hard and focusing on the positive. The implications of these findings for turning poor copers into good copers is discussed.     

Applying Person‐Centered Counseling to Sexual Minority Adolescents

Drawing attention to the very unique and complex needs of stigmatized sexual minority youth, the authors explore the therapeutic potential of person‐centered counseling in helping lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/sexual (LGBT) adolescents who are working toward the acceptance and disclosure of their sexual identity. They suggest that person‐centered counseling embodies 6 aspects that are particularly helpful to LGBT adolescent clients and propose 3 additional methods that compensate for the limitations of the person‐centered approach in this particular helping context.     

个体助人行为的形成与发展——基于扎根理论的探究

为了解个体助人行为的发生、发展和变化,本研究采用质性研究方法,围绕日常生活中助人行为深度访谈了10名始成年期的高助人者,运用扎根理论对访谈资料进行分析和理论建构。发现个体助人行为的发展可分成三个阶段：形成期、冲击期及稳固期,各发展阶段以对助人行为的认知和主要动机为核心,呈现出稳定-外控、不稳定-外控、稳定-内控的特点,据此提出助人行为的发展历程,并讨论了研究的理论价值、现实意义及局限。     

Adolescents' attitudes toward suicide, and a suicidal peer: A comparison between Swedish and Turkish high school students

The present paper first presents the attitudes toward suicide and a suicidal classmate among 98 female and 69 male (N = 167) Swedish high school students. Secondly, the Swedish sample was compared with 167 (89 female and 78 male) Turkish high school students from a previous study. Among Swedish students, more males than females said that people have the right to commit suicide and suicide can be a solution to some problems. More females than males expressed a belief in life after death. Swedish adolescents were found to be holding more liberal attitudes toward suicide than Turkish adolescents. However, Turkish adolescents showed greater acceptance for a suicidal peer than Swedish adolescents. The results are discussed in terms of socio-cultural factors and related literature. The need for educational programs to provide basic knowledge about suicide and, effective ways of dealing with and helping suicidal peers is implicated.     

Adolescents,well-being and spirituality: insights from a spiritual program

This paper is a study of adolescents, well-being and spirituality. I have looked at the All Round Training in Excellence (ART-Excel) program for adolescents developed by an international spiritual organisation called the Art of Living Foundation (AOL Foundation). Adolescents participants (n = 396) of this program from four cities – Vancouver, London, Johannesburg and Mumbai – comprised of the sample. An equal number comprised of the control group. The findings suggest that spirituality is generally perceived as having positive mental health and well-being influences for program participants. Logistic regression analyses showed that girls, Hindus (homeland and Diaspora), adolescents in higher monthly expenses brackets, with a better health status, that is no self-declared ailments saw a higher efficacy to the ART-Excel program. The program was in general seen to contribute to well-being, social participation, sense of social duty, relationships, future vision and educational attainment. It is important to recognise the role of spirituality in early adolescents’ psychological well-being and include discussion of such coping mechanisms in working with this population. Moving this further it is also important for helping professionals to be cognisant of the possible presence and importance of spiritual beliefs in the lives of troubled adolescents such as runaway and homeless youth.     

Helping behaviour and moral judgement among adolescents

This study examined the development of helping behaviour and moral judgement during adolescence. Adolescents of three age groups, 12–13, 14–15 and 16–17 years, were asked to fill out a moral judgement questionnaire and were later asked to volunteer to help old people under three helping conditions: when tangible reward was promised in return for their help; when social reward was promised; and when no reward was promised. The volunteers who arrived at the appointed hour on the set date were asked by the experimenter to explain in writing why they had decided to help. The results showed that the older the adolescents, the less they expressed their willingness to help. Helping conditions had a differential effect on behaviour and influenced the three age groups differently. Finally, the results showed that the older the adolescents, the more altruistic the motives expressed and the more relativistically oriented they were. These results are explained within the framework of adolescents' social-developmental psychology.     

Adolescent premarital sexual activity, cohabitation, and attitudes toward marriage

Societal trends indicate ambivalent attitudes about marriage. Specifically, there is greater acceptance of divorce and nontraditional living arrangements such as cohabitation, as well as acceptance and prevalence of premarital sex, than in the past. The authors examine adolescent attitudes toward marriage and their association with premarital sexual activity and cohabitation. Recommendations for helping adolescents understand the realities of marriage and family life are shared.     

Attachment Disruptions,IQ, and PTSD in African American Adolescents: A Traumatology Perspective

Attachment disruptions, other traumas, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and intelligence quotient (IQ) were measured in a sample of 181 African American adolescents. Path analysis was utilized to test the effects of different types of attachment disruptions on IQ and PTSD. Findings supported that mother and father abandonments and being in foster care are associated with decreased perceptual reasoning, processing speed, and working memory, and increased discrepancy between perceptual and verbal toward decreased perceptual reasoning. Such suppression and discrepancy contribute to poor academic achievement. Results validated the traumatology perspective on attachment disruptions as traumas that are associated with PTSD, suppression of most IQ potentials, and with potential brain hemispheric desynchronization. The ramifications of these results for helping African American adolescents are discussed.     

Creativity,Acceptance, and the Pause: A Case Example of Mindfulness and Art in Therapy with an Adolescent

ABSTRACT

Mindfulness, defined as nonjudgmental awareness, has been integrated into a variety of therapeutic approaches. The benefits of mindfulness for adults have been demonstrated, and mindful interventions for youth are increasing. Creating a space for mindfulness to arise can be challenging within the hectic and technology-filled lives adolescents often lead. Art in therapy with adolescents can be a beneficial way of creating a pause, thereby helping clients to connect to a mindful state. The use of art in therapy to promote mindfulness can be especially useful for adolescents who can be reluctant to engage in traditional forms of talk therapy. In this article, we use a case example of therapy with a Mexican-American male youth to exemplify the clinical application of a combination of mindfulness and various art modalities.     

The relation between ethnic group attachment and prosocial tendencies: The mediating role of cultural values

Studies suggest that Mexican–American youths who feel attached to their ethnic group engage in more prosocial behaviors. However, the psychological mechanisms that account for this association are not clear. Drawing on social identity and self‐categorization theories, we examined whether the association between ethnic group attachment and tendencies to engage in six distinct types of prosocial behaviors was mediated by familism and Mainstream American values among Mexican American youths. Ethnic group attachment, familism, Mainstream American values, and prosocial tendencies were assessed among 207 Mexican–American early adolescents using an interview format. Latent variable path models showed that ethnic group attachment was associated with greater tendencies to engage in compliant, emotional, dire, and anonymous helping, and that each of these associations was at least partially mediated by greater familism values. Mainstream American values were related to greater tendencies to engage in public prosocial behavior and less altruistic behavior, but did not mediate the associations between ethnic group attachment and prosocial tendencies. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are addressed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adolescent pregnancy: contributing factors, consequences, treatment, and plausible solutions

Adolescence, although not always necessarily a period of extreme stress, is a time of profound physical changes which increase the adolescent's awareness of and interest in sexual behavior. This issue of sexuality, which begins in early adolescence, creates new challenges to personal and gender identity formation as the person matures. Sexual maturation is a three-fold process, requiring growth in understanding of oneself as a sexual being, in the ability to handle interpersonal relationships effectively, and in the capacity to plan behavior in view of future outcomes and present problems. A current concern is that today's adolescents, including early adolescents, may be making important life choices such as parenthood before they are developmentally ready for such roles (Chilman, 1980). This paper deals with pregnancy in adolescents and modes of responding to this phenomenon by those in the counseling and other helping professions.     

Increasing Positive Health Behaviors in Adolescents with Nutritional Goals and Exercise

Research has documented that low-income urban youth are at risk for obesity and related health problems. Our goal was to develop a brief, developmentally informed intervention to increase positive health behaviors (e.g., diet and exercise) among low-income, minority adolescents. Our study was designed to examine the feasibility and potential impact of our single session intervention that was delivered in a primary care setting. The participants were 100 adolescents from an urban adolescent medicine clinic who were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: a) a 3–5?min goal-only session or b) a 15–20?min motivationally enhanced intervention. Health behaviors and individual characteristics (i.e., autonomous motivation, self-efficacy) were assessed at baseline and re-assessed at follow-up 1 month later with 53?% of the youth completing the follow-up assessment. Those in the enhanced intervention group were more likely to participate in the follow-up as were those who reported higher baseline motivation and self-efficacy. Both groups reported statistically significant health behavior improvements over time and older adolescents reported more improvements. The two conditions did not significantly differ in reported health improvements. Self-efficacy predicted improvements in self-reported fruit and vegetable intake at follow-up. Results support that a brief “chat” with adolescents about their personal goals and values appears to have the potential to increase their positive health behaviors and appears to be useful as a preparatory intervention for weight management efforts for urban teens. The study demonstrates the feasibility and potential efficacy of implementing this 20?min intervention into primary care settings, thereby helping urban youth focus on their individualized goals, values, and motivations for health.