A study of the effect of a support group for single custodial fathers on measures of divorce adjustment, loneliness and self concept.

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the effects of a support group for single custodial fathers on measures of divorce adjustment, loneliness and self concept. The support group used a small group setting with a format of information giving and discussion. The instruments used were the Fisher Divorce Adjustment Scale, the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale, and the Tennessee Self Concept Scale. A Solomon four group design was employed. The groups identified were (1) men who attended a six-week group and completed posttest questionnaires; (2) men who completed pretest questionnaires, attended a six-week group, and completed posttest questionnaires; (3) men who completed pretest and posttest questionnaires with no intervention; and (4) men who completed posttest questionnaires only. The hypotheses that there would be no significant differences between the pretest and posttest scores on the instruments and that there would be no significant differences among the four posttest groups were analyzed in various ways. A two way MANOVA was done to test for differences on posttest scores with a follow-up 2 x 2 ANOVA (pretest sensitization x Support group for each dependent variable). A dependent measures t-test was used to analyze gains from pretest to posttest on Groups 2 and 3 separately. A Hotelling's T('2) was used on the pretest scores to test for any differences between Groups 2 and 3 with a one way MANCOVA run for any of those variables which showed some pretest differences. Twenty-seven dependent variables were analyzed with 114 tests run. Twenty-one of these tests showed significance at the .05 level while one test was significant at less than the .0001 level. A brief description of each group session is given as well as a discussion of the significant results.