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Family, Home, and Social Sciences
Consortium for Group Research and Practice

Current Activity

Current Research and Writing Projects
Outcome Effectiveness
Practice-Based Evidence

The bulk of what our lab members focus on fall into one of two general categories—outcome/effectiveness studies or studies aimed at supporting practice-based evidence in small group treatment. Our work on outcome/effectiveness primarily focuses on small group treatments although we continue to be involved in studies that use or test outcome measures our team members have co-authored (e.g., OQ 45, S-OQ, & Y-OQ). We’ve made a commitment to the use of measures to inform and improve the practice of small group treatment. In addition to treatment monitoring work with OQ-measures, we also developed a short screening tool (Group Readiness Questionnaire [GRQ]) that identifies clients’ level of readiness to participate in group treatment that can be used to assist group coordinators. Our more recent work has focused on the Group Questionnaire (GQ) which is a 30-item measure that assesses the therapeutic relationship in group treatment. A meta-analysis we published in 2018documented the strong empirical support for the therapeutic relationship being one of the best predictors of improvement in small group treatment. The GQ is an empirical and clinically informed group of items that tap the therapeutic alliance, cohesion, empathy, and group climate. Ideally, we see the group leader using the GRQ to assist in referring and preparing a group member, an OQ/YOQ instrument to monitor their symptomatic change from intake, and the GQ to alert the group leader to relationship problems that can lead to early drop out or alliance ruptures that can impair treatment effectiveness. What follows are current studies and writing projects group under the most applicable category.

Current Research and Writing Projects

Outcome-Effectiveness

Meta-analyses of small group treatment effectiveness by patient disorder—Our lab has a longstanding collaboration with Bernhard Strauss’s lab in Jena, Germany. After completing the latest chapter on group treatment in the Bergin and Garfield Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change (2013) we undertook a series of meta-analyses organized by disorders that had a sufficient number of high-quality and recent randomized clinical trials of treatment efficacy. What follows is a list of recently completed and ongoing projects.

Completed

  • Social Anxiety—Barkowski, S., Schwartze, D., Strauss, B., Burlingame, G., Barth, J. & Rosendahl, J. (2016) Efficacy of group psychotherapy for social anxiety disorder: A meta-analysis of randomized-controlled trials Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 39, 44-64
  • OCD—Schwartze, D., Barkowski, S., Burlingame, G., Strauss, B., and Rosendahl, J. (in press). Efficacy of group psychotherapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders
  • Panic disorder— Barkowski, S., Strauss, B., Burlingame, G., Barth, J., Rosendahl, J., (under review). Efficacy of group psychotherapy for panic disorder: A meta-analysis of randomized-controlled trials Behavior Therapy

  • Individual versus Group effectiveness—

    • Seebeck, J., Whitcomb, J., & Burlingame, G. (2017). Individual vs. Group Psychotherapy: Couching it in Everyday Practice. Division 29 Feature Research http://societyforpsychotherapy.org/individual-vs-group-psychotherapy
    • Barkowski, S., Schwartz, D., Burlingame, G., Strauss, B., & Rosendahl, J. (2016). How efficacious is group psychotherapy compared to individual psychotherapy? Gruppenpsychotherapie und Gruppendynamik, 52(2), 142-155.
    • Burlingame, G., Gleave, R., Erekson, D., Nelson, P., Olson, J., Thayer, S., & Beecher, M. (2016). Differential effectiveness of group, individual and conjoint treatment: An archival analysis of OQ-45 change trajectories. Psychotherapy Research, 26(5), 556-572. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2015.1044583

    • Burlingame, G., Seebeck, J., Janis, R., Whitcomb, K., & Bardowski, S. (2016). Outcome differences between individual and group formats when equivalent and nonequivalent treatments, patients, and doses are compared: A 25-year meta-analytic perspective. Psychotherapy, 53(4), 446-461.

      http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pst0000090. This study was featured on the website for Division 29 of APA and also received the 2016 Most Valuable Paper award.

  • Borderline Personality Disorder—McLaughlin, S., Barkowski, S., Burlingame, G., Strauss, B., & Rosendahl, J. (under review). Efficacy of group psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder: A meta-analysis of randomized-controlled trials. Psychiatric Services
  • Eating Disorders—Grenon, R., Schwartze, D., Hammond, N., Ivanova, I., Mcquaid, N., Proulx, G., & Tasca, G. (2017) Group psychotherapy for eating disorders: A meta-analysis. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 50(9), 997-1013. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.22744

In Progress:

  • Mood—in progress with Rebecca Janis (Penn State) as team lead
  • Schizophrenia—in progress with Gary Burlingame as team lead

Other recent team publications that speak to the effectiveness of group treatments include:

  • Burlingame, G., Davies, R., & Kirchoefer, J. (2017). Self-help groups. In Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology. Oxford, UK: Elsevier. Revision and update of Burlingame & Davies (2002) chapter in Encyclopedia of Psychotherapy
  • Burlingame, G., & Jensen, J. (2017). Small group process and outcome research highlights: A 25-year perspective. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 67(2), 194-218. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207284.2016.1218287
  • Burlingame, G., Whitcomb, K., & Woodland, S., (2014). Process and outcome in group psychotherapy. In J. DeLucia-Waack, D. Gerrity, C. Kalodner, & M. Riva (Eds.), Handbook of group counseling and psychotherapy (2nd Ed.; pp. 55-68). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications
  • Coco, G., Prestano, C., Gullo, S., & Burlingame, G. (2014). Current issues in group therapy research: An overview. In O. Gelo, A. Pritz & B. Rieken (Eds.), Psychotherapy Research: General issues, outcomes and processes. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer

Our team also has conducted several program evaluations and open trials over the years focusing on small group treatments. What follows are current projects in this area.

Compassion-focused and mindful self-compassion groups—some members of our team have completed Germer & Neff’s training to deliver their 8-session mindful self-compassion group intervention. This fall, these members will complete training in Gilbert’s compassion-focused therapy in England. We have received funding (MEG) for an open trial that will be managed by a doctoral student studying compassion focused group for the seriously mentally ill at the Utah State Hospital and mindful self-compassion for college students receiving treatment at BYU’s CAPS. A recent articles summarizing background work—

Barnes, B., & Burlingame, G. (2016). Using mindfulness-based and compassion-focused therapies in treating serious mental illness. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 66(4), 637-642. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207284.2016.1176503

Groups to support wellness with the seriously mentally ill—USH:

King, V., Janis, R., & Burlingame, G (2016). Solutions for wellness: Outcome review and analysis of a healthy life-style group. International Archives of Nursing and Health Care, 2(3), 1-4. ISSN: 2469-5823

Addiction Recovery Program (ARP) : C-GRP has worked in conjunction with The Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter Day Saints’ (LDS) Family Services (LDS- FS) to explore and assess processes and outcomes of the LDS- FS 12-step Addiction Recovery Program. Particularly we have worked with the Pornography Addiction Support Groups which include clients with concerns related to problematic pornography use. Approaches have included both qualitative and quantitative aspects.

Current Research and Writing Projects

Practice-based evidence/Using measures in group treatment

Feedback informed group treatment (FIGT) randomized clinical trial — we completed a 2-year 3-site study with 69 groups run by 16 leaders with three experimental arms – GQ and OQ feedback, OQ feedback only, and no-feedback to test the effect of providing group leaders with outcome and therapeutic relationship feedback. A series of papers have been spawned by this research that will appear in a special issue of Psychotherapy:

  • Burlingame, G., Whitcomb, K., Woodland, S., Olsen, J., Beecher, M., & Gleave, R. (in press). The effects of relationship and progress feedback in group psychotherapy using the GQ and OQ-45: A randomized clinical trial. Psychotherapy
  • Janis, R., Burlingame, G. & Olsen, J (in press). Developing a therapeutic relationship monitoring system for group treatment. Psychotherapy
  • Jensen, J., & Burlingame, G. (in press). An item reduction analysis of the group questionnaire. Psychotherapy
  • Whitcomb, K., Woodland, S. & Burlingame, G (in press). Do clinicians really use feedback monitoring systems? A qualitative analysis of 16 group leaders. Psychotherapy

FIGT in clinical practice — we've also recently completed publications that speak to the clinician addressing how they can integrate FIGT into daily practice. These include:

  • Burlingame, G., McClendon, D., & Yang, C (submitted). Cohesion in group psychotherapy. In J. C. Norcross (Ed.), A Guide to Psychotherapy Relationships that Work (3rd Ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press
  • Boardman, R., Worthen, V., Griner, D., Beecher, M., Burlingame, G., & Gleave, R. (2017). Outcome and assessment research. In J. Gross, M. Turner, & M. Ribeiro (Eds.), The college counselor’s guide to group Psychotherapy. New York, NY: Routledge
  • Gleave, R., Burlingame, G., Beecher, M., Griner, D., Hansen, K., & Jenkins, S. (2017). Feedback-informed group treatment: Application of the OQ-45 and Group Questionnaire (GQ). In D. Prescott, C. Maeschalck, & S. Miller (Eds.), Reaching for excellence: Feedback-informed treatment in practice. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
  • Gullo, S., Lo Coco, G., Di Fratello, C., Giannone, F., & Burlingame, G. (2015). Group climate, cohesion and curative climate. A study on the common factors in group process and their relation with member’s attachment dimensions. Research in Psychotherapy: Psychopathology, Process and Outcome, 18(1), 10-20. https://doi.org/10.4081/ripppo.2015.160

System Centered Therapy (SCT) — our team has worked for years with Susan Gantt and Yvonne Agazarian to develop measures which capture mechanisms of change that are key to SCT. This resulted in two recent papers that involved members from our team:

  • Whitcomb, K., Burlingame, G., Mogle, J., Gantt, S. & O’Neill, R. (in press). The functional subgrouping questionnaire-2: A replication and extension of its construct validity. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy
  • O’Neil, R., Gantt, S., Mogle, J., Johnson, J., & Burlingame, G. (2013). Developing the system-centered functional subgrouping questionnaire. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 17(4), 252-269. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0034925

Other recent practice-based measure papers from our team include:

  • Janis, R., Burlingame, G., & Olsen, J. (2016). Evaluating factor structures of measures used in group research: Looking between and within. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 20(3) 165-180 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/gdn0000043