The Contribution of Group Cohesion and Group Alliance to the Outcome of Group Psychotherapy

ABSTRACT

The contribution to outcome of two group-process factors, group cohesion and group therapeutic alliance, was tested in the context of a randomized, controlled treatment trial for borderline personality disorder. Group members from four time-limited groups of an experimental model of group psychotherapy completed measures of group cohesion and group alliance at prespecified intervals across the 30-session therapy. Outcome was measured in terms of psychiatric symptoms, social adaptation, and indicators of behavioral dysfunction. The results showed that cohesion and alliance were correlated significantly and separately contributed to outcome on most of the dependent measures. Stepwise regression analyses showed, however, that when compared with cohesion, alliance accounted for more outcome variance on the dependent measures. The clinical implications of the findings and the limitations of the study are discussed.