The Development and Validation of the Group Leader Intervention Scales

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to develop and validate an instrument for examining therapist interventions in group counseling settings. The Group Leader Intervention Scales (GLIS) is a verbal response mode system designed to code group leader verbalizations on six group process variables (structure, group cohesion, modeling, information, exploration, and feedback), and on eleven subscales that examine various aspects of the main categories. The GLIS was developed though a content analysis of session transcripts from a group intervention for children that used stories and peer group processes to increase social problem-solving. High levels of interrater reliability were established between three raters for the six group process variables, and for nine of the eleven subscales. Initial validity of the new instrument was demonstrated by its ability to distinguish between groups based on treatment response (high or low cognitive treatment response), and based on stage of treatment (early, middle, or late).