Survey of attendance at a community-based anger control group treatment programme with reference to source of referral, age of client and external motivating features

Abstract

Novaco's (1975) treatment of anger control problems has mainly been utilised in residential settings and there are few studies in the literature relating to similar interventions with violent offenders and individuals in the community. The present paper considers attendance at anger control groups run by the Merseyside Forensic Psychology Service over a 3 year period. Overall, attendance rates were poor and only 18% completed treatment. Referral details were examined to see if there was any way of predicting the likelihood of attendance. The results indicate that clients are much more likely to attend if they face consequences for not doing so. Increasing age also seemed to be associated with greater likelihood of attendance, whereas source of referral and the presence of external motivating features were not. These results are discussed in relation to client motivation and Prochaska & Diclemente's (1982) stages of change model.