What Factors Influence Therapy Drop Out?

Abstract

Are there systematic factors that predict client drop out in marriage and family therapy? Based on our review of literature we investigated the influence on drop out of personality characteristics such as hostility, anxiety, satisfaction with life, and self-esteem. We also investigated several demographic variables. The following variables were statistically significant predictors of client drop out: modality of treatment, marital status, occupation, income, and previous therapy experience.

Predictors of dropout in a controlled clinical trial of psychotherapy for moderate depression

“…20%, up to 74%; Swift & Greenberg, 2012 ). Few predictors of dropout have emerged recurrently in research, such as low socio-economic status ( Reis & Brown, 1999 ), being married or living with a partner, previous experience with psychotherapy ( Werner-Wilson & Winter, 2010 ), low education ( Swift & Greenberg, 2012 ), older age ( Pomp, Fleig, Schwarzer, & Lippke, 2013 ), being African-American ( Lester, Artz, Resick, & Young-Xu, 2010 ), being female ( Shamir, Szor, & Melamed, 2010 ), suffering from low levels of anxiety and/or depression ( Baekeland & Lundwall, 1975 ), less clinical experience of therapists ( Roos and Werbart, 2013 , Swift and Greenberg, 2012 ) and weaker alliance ( Sharf, Primavera, & Diener, 2010 ). Still, most researchers who have investigated psychotherapy dropout agree that there is no clear evidence for a pattern of dropout predictors ( Baekeland and Lundwall, 1975 , Casares-López et al, 2011 , Swift and Greenberg, 2012 ).…”

Exploration of Client Profile and Clinical Outcome in a University Psychology Clinic

“…Interestingly, the only predictor of dropout found to be statistically significant in the current study was occupation, more specifically being unemployed. In prior research, lower income has been found to be a significant predictor of dropout in studies of clients with depression (Arnow et al, ; Beckham, ) and for clients attending marriage and family therapy (Werner‐Wilson & Winter, ). Furthermore, lower SES was found to be a significant predictor in two studies examining predictors of psychotherapy dropout (Braet et al, ; Chisholm et al, ).…”

Predicting Dropout in Counseling Using Affect Coding of the Therapeutic Relationship: An Empirical Analysis

“…Over the past 40 years, numerous studies have found that between 15% and 70% of clients drop out of therapy or do not complete a course of treatment to a satisfactory outcome (Baekeland & Lundwall, ; Edlund et al, ; Swift & Greenberg, ; Werner‐Wilson & Winter, ). The variance in this statistic stems from differences in the definition of dropout (i.e., clients who make some clinically meaningful progress and leave vs. clients who do not have any symptom reduction) or in the particular sample selected for investigation (Cooper & Conklin, ; Swift & Greenberg, ).…”