Marathon Groups: Facilitating the Personal Growth of Male Illicit Drug Users

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of marathon group counseling on the attitudes of imprisoned male illicit drug users. Residents selected randomly into a control and an experimental group responded to a semantic differential which included the following concepts: Kindness, Anger, Guilt, Reality, My Real Self, The Future, Drug Treatment Programs, Counselors, Counseling, and Group Counseling. The scores of the control and marathon group participants were compared on posttests by t-tests. The posttest scores of the marathon group participants were significantly higher than the scores of the control group participants on the following scales: Counselor (E), Group Counseling (E), and Drug Treatment Programs (P).