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This article reports a secondary analysis of past therapy outcome meta-analysis. Fifteen meta-analysts provided effect sizes from 56 studies in previous reviews that met 1 of 3 increasingly stringent levels of criteria for clinical representativeness. The effect sizes were synthesized and compared with results from the original meta-analyses. Effect sizes from more clinically representative studies are the same size at all 3 criteria levels as in past meta-analyses. Almost no studies exist that meet the most stringent level of criteria. Results are interpreted cautiously because of controversy about what criteria best capture the notion of clinical representativeness, because so few experiments have tested therapy in clinical conditions, and because other models for exploring the generalizability of therapy outcome research to clinical conditions might yield different results.

74 homeless persons were asked if they had ever been in foster care. Twelve (16%) answered affirmatively. Compared with the estimated baseline of adults who had been in foster care in the same locality, these homeless persons reported histories of foster care at four times the base rate in the general population. This finding suggests that children in foster care are at risk of serious dysfunction as adults.

Used meta-analysis to study the clinical significance of psychotherapy for symptoms of unipolar depression, using the Beck Depression Inventory. Results indicated that psychotherapy produces outcomes of moderate clinical significance which are well-maintained at follow-up, that individual therapy is associated with greater clinical significance than group treatment, and that type of therapy is not related to improvement. (Author/KS)

Examined the relationship of instrumental and affectional behavioral events to short- and long-term marital satisfaction. Results showed a significant negative relationship between frequency of displeasurable instrumental events and ratings of marital satisfaction. The most important finding was the degree to which wives' self-esteem correlated with couple-rated marital satisfaction. (Author)

Reviews recent experimental studies of social learning therapies for drug abuse and examines the relationship between attention to generalization or maintenance issues and other factors. The behavior modification-behavior therapy literature exhibits consistent deficiencies in its clinical procedures for and methodological approach to generalization and maintenance. (Author)