Group properties and outcomes: a study of group norms in self-help groups for widows and widowers

Despite the nearly universally shared agreement among group therapists about the importance of group norms, empirical studies have rarely demonstrated a positive relationship between specific norms in psychotherapy groups and patient benefit. The study explored this relationship by examining the linkages between norms, a specific therapeutic process, and patient outcome. Examined were seventy-two spousal bereavement groups. Subjects' responses to a thirty-one item behavioral inventory were used to define norms; outcomes were based upon Time 1/Time 2 differences on a series of eleven measures indexing depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms, abuse of psychotropic medication, coping mastery, well-being, self-esteem, target problem rating, several measures of role stress and strain, and stigma. The findings suggest that normative characteristics were linked to a process, reciprocal social exchange, that influences positive outcomes. The results are preliminary, since they only serve to demonstrate such a relationship can exist.