PREDICTING MARITAL-THERAPY DROPOUTS

The purpose of this study was to predict therapy dropouts using data gathered at marital therpay intake. Intake data included standardized assessments and demographic information. The sample consisted of 474 couples who were seeking marital therapy and who attended at least one therapy session. Seventy‐two couples met the dropout criteria, and a random sample of equal size was drawn from the rest of the couples for the analyses. Data from these two groups of couples were analyzed with multiple regression and discriminant analysis formulas. Three variables‐having less than two children, having a male intake clinician, and a presenting problem relating only to one spouse‐were significant predictors in accounting for couples who would drop out of therapy. In the best model, high phobic anxiety scores for husbands and a presenting problem relating to parenting, along with the other three variables, produced a model that accurately classified 82% of the couples who dropped out of therapy. Copyright © 1991, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved