Attendance-Enhancing Procedures in Group Counseling for Domestic Abusers

A quasi-experimental design was used to examine the effectiveness of motivational enhancement techniques in increasing session attendance and reducing dropout among 189 men undergoing group domestic abuse counseling. The treatment retention procedures were associated with significantly greater session attendance and lower dropout rates even after controlling for demographic factors. Increased session attendance was associated with lower posttreatment relationship violence and criminal recidivism among those who received the treatment retention intervention. The intervention appeared to be particularly effective with ethnic minority clients. Findings indicate that supportive treatment retention procedures during the course of therapy can reduce the high dropout rates commonly reported in counseling programs for male domestic abuse perpetrators.