[The effect of a group therapy for the offenders of family violence].

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the contribution of group therapy to the improvement of self-esteem, anger, stress coping and communication of those who were violent in to family. METHODS The research design was a one-group- pretest-posttest design in quasi-experimental research, and the period of this study was from March to October, 2005. Participants were 14 offenders who were ordered to be counseled according to 'the special exemption law for punishing domestic violence.' Group therapy was applied once a week for 8 weeks. Results were collected by using a questionnaire for self-esteem, anger, stress coping and communication. In the data analysis, Wilcoxon signed test with SPSS/WIN 12.0 program was used. RESULTS The scores of self-esteem and communication showed statistically significant improvement from pre to post therapy. However, the scores of anger and stress coping were not significantly changed from pre to post therapy. CONCLUSION This group therapy was effective in improving the self-esteem and communication in offenders of family violence.