Factors associated with number of treatment interviews of patients from a barrio neighborhood mental health service: A cross-validation

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Abstract
Demographic and treatment variables were, for a second time, found associated with number of treatment interviews completed by lower socioeconomic patients of a barrio area neighborhood mental health service. Of the eight variables that originally differentiated patients with respect to number of interviews, six remained significant on cross-validation. The longer staying patients were characterized by: young adult age range; disrupted marital status; self-referral; using psychotropic medication; major and secondary problems of anxiety and depression. A number of hypotheses have been proposed to account for the consistent findings that individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds rarely continue in psychotherapy for more than a few sessions, while those from higher socioeconomic levels have a much greater probability of doing so (Cole, Branch, & Allison, 1962; Gibby, Stotsky, Hiler, & Miller, 1954; Imber, Nash, & Stone, 1955). Some explanations suggest that this is due to the therapist's middle-class value orientation, while other explanations suggest that the difficulty lies in the patients' limitations of verbalization, conceptualizations, and psychologicalmindedness. The present study approaches this problem by examining characteristics of lower socioeconomic patients who stay in treatment for more than a few sessions versus those who do not. Identifying which factors in the background

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