HOPE AND ATTRITION IN A BRIEF INTENSIVE OUTPATIENT DIALECTICAL BEHAVIOR THERAPY PROGRAM

Abstract

Positive Psychology (PP) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) are two growing fields within psychology. However, despite this growth, both fields remain unbalanced. PP is unbalanced regarding their population samples. Much research focuses on non-clinical samples, which prevents testing whether well-being can be improved in symptomatic individuals. DBT aims to create “a life worth living” in clients. However, most research focuses on reduction of symptoms, not necessarily the promotion of strengths. Integrating PP and DBT allows for the testing of PP constructs and interventions within a higher symptomatic clinical sample, while also providing opportunities to see how DBT may promote the strengths of clients towards a higher quality of life. Additionally, there remains a need for additional information regarding effectiveness of brief DBT community programs. Given mutual strengths, it remains logical to integrate PP constructs into DBT. Also, given previous integration in clinical populations, hope remains an ideal candidate for this intersection. The Integrated Hope Scale (IHS) needs exploration within an American clinical population. As such, this study assessed the role of hope and its relation to program completion in a brief intensive outpatient DBT community program. Exploratory factor analysis yielded four factors that were novel compared with previous findings. Additionally, hope at entry was unable to predict graduation status, nor was it able to distinguish between graduates and non-graduates at the final completed session. Lastly, hope did not significantly increase during time in DBT. The significance of this study remains that hope may have a different factor structure in an American clinical population and it provides evidence that a central PP construct, hope, possesses little importance regarding a treatment in a brief, intensive-outpatient mixed diagnostic DBT population. Implications for researchers and clinicians are discussed.