Student Publication in American Psychologist

Recent graduate, Dr. Elizabeth Penix’s dissertation-based manuscript was accepted for publication in the American Psychologist, the flagship journal for the American Psychological Association. She is joined by fellow students Ailun Li, Jacob Bingham, and Gabe Hapke and Professor Dr. Joshua Swift as co-authors on the manuscript.

The paper presents a systematic review and meta-analysis of psychotherapy dropout in military Service Members and Veterans. The authors reviewed over 34,000 titles and abstracts related to psychotherapy dropout among those populations, and pooled dropout rates from the 283 published studies that met inclusion criteria. They found an average dropout rate of 26% across those studies, which included data from over 700,000 Service Members and Veterans.  

Penix says, “Ultimately, we hope that these findings serve as a guide for clinicians and researchers serving our Service Members and Veterans. Better understanding how frequently dropout occurs in specific populations and identifying predictors of dropout risk can help prepare clinicians, researchers, and policymakers to provide additional resources that support those who are particularly at-risk from dropping out.”