An Actor Partner Interdependent Analysis of the Relationship between Evaluations and Affect and Session Attendance in Groups

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between group members‟ session evaluations and post-session affects and group members‟ attendance in interpersonal growth groups using the session evaluation questionnaire (SEQ; Stiles, 1980). To test the effect of the SEQ scores on attendance in the following session, the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) was used (Kashy & Kenny, 2000). Results from the APIM analysis were used to examine the effects of session evaluation and post-session mood data on attendance. Group member‟s positivity was related to group member‟s attendance, and other group members‟ smoothness and arousal were related to other group members‟ attendance. There were no significant relationships between group member‟s mood or evaluation and other group members‟ attendance. Other group members‟ depth, smoothness, and arousal were related to group member‟s attendance. These findings suggest that not only do other group members influence each other, but they also influence group members.