Factors Affecting Therapy Dropout For Maltreating Families with Institution Involvement

Abstract

This study identified factors associated with therapy dropout for families with institutions involved in their lives for child abuse and neglect. Seventy one cases from a marriage and family therapy training clinic were included in the total sample. Thirty cases that had institution involvement, such as Child Protective Services or the court, for child abuse or neglect were the experimental group, and forty one family cases with no institution involvement comprised the comparison group. One-way analysis of variance tests, post hoc comparisons, analysis of covariance statistics, and chi-square tests were used to test the hypotheses. Results showed significant differences between target groups on female age, highest level of education completed, number of sessions attended, and yearly income. Results show that clients with institution involvement are more similar than different when compared to clients without institution involvement, but they attend more therapy sessions. Implications and suggestions for future research were discussed.