[Evaluation of integrative group therapy with children]

The purpose of this study consists in the investigation of the effectiveness of an Integrative Group Therapy involving children from a social focus area. The research has been made on a group therapy covering a total of 22 therapeutic sessions with six "marginalised children" aged seven to nine attending the second class of a primary school. The children suffered from considerable concentration and attention problems affecting their achievements at school. The dominating symptom with three of these children has been aggressiveness, with two of them it has been social withdrawal and insecurity and one child suffered from psychosomatic complaints. The success of the treatment was determined by different target areas (symptomatic features, adaptive function, individual therapeutic goals, assessment of the treatment), having been assessed by different persons of reference (parents, teachers, therapists). According to the results the effectiveness of the Integrative Group Therapy with children has to be regarded unsatisfactory. The average effect size (averaged over all the scales of CBCL and TRF) amounts to 0.32. Considering only those scales where there have been peculiarities at the preliminary measuring, the average effect size amounts to 0.39. According to the individual case evaluation the treatment may be considered successful with one child, yet with another child a definite negative development has been noticed, and with four of the children no or slightly positive changes have been registered. The Integrative Group Therapy seems to be inapplicable to children with aggressive problems. In conclusion the results will be discussed and proposals for an improvement of the treatment are being made.