The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of group therapy being offered to a sample (N=45) of gay males with ARC or AIDS at a local AIDS PROJECT. To this end, agency files were used to randomly select three groups of gay men with ARC or AIDS: (1) men who had been receiving therapy under six months; (2) men who had been receiving therapy between six months and one year; and (3) men who had been receiving therapy over one year.
All subjects were required to complete test instruments assessing their level of symptomology, their perceptions of group cohesiveness, and their perceptions of factors established in the existing literature as important to effective group therapy. The study tested the null hypotheses that perceptions of group cohesiveness and perceptions of selected therapeutic factors would not significantly differ as a function of difference sin either Amount of Time Spent in Group Therapy or Level of Illness.
Findings supported the null theses. In addition, it was found that the majority of subjects evidenced only Stage I symptoms, these being relatively normal body activity with only low-level and infrequent manifestations of symptoms of the disease. Also, sample subjects perceived their groups as highly cohesive. Further, subjects perceived their groups as strong in those factors which existing research had shown to be indicators of effective group therapy.
The first conclusion that can be formulated in the study is that the groups offered by the local AIDS PROJECT tend to be effective. Subjects felt that he groups offered them a strong sense of belonging and acceptance as well as sound ways of coping both with their own illness and that of others. They liked their therapists and found them to be warm, supportive and non judgmental. The high levels of anger which so often characterize denial in populations of terminally ill patients (Barrows & Halgin, 1988) were not present in either subje...