title: Group Process in the single-gender Women's Recovery Group compared with mixed-gender Group Drug Counseling.
abstract: Enhanced affiliation among members is thought to provide increased support for women in single-gender compared with mixed-gender group therapy for substance use disorders (SUDs) and to provide a potential mechanism of action for its efficacy. In a Stage I trial of single-gender versus mixed-gender group therapy for SUDs we examined affiliative statements made by members in two group treatments, single-gender Women's Recovery Group (WRG) and mixed-gender Group Drug Counseling (GDC). Twenty-eight WRG and 17 GDC group therapy tapes were coded and compared for five types of affiliative statements. Three types of affiliative statements (agreement, supportive, and completing a thought) were highly correlated and were more frequent in WRG than GDC (D=0.882, p=0.27). In GDC, women were more likely to provide an affiliative statement to a male group member than any other combination of directionality (p<0.01). Compared with mixed-gender, single-gender group therapy for SUDs may enhance support through greater frequency of affiliative statements.
authors.affiliation: McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA ; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Shelly F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Greenfield
authors.forename: Laura E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Kuper
authors.forename: Amanda M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Cummings
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Robbins
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Gallop
keywords: Group Therapy; Mixed-gender programs; Treatment for women; Treatment outcomes; Women-only programs