The Effects of the GPS Program in Offenders
Condition: Male Prison Inmates
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      This randomized controlled trial aimed to assess the efficacy of a 40-session
      cognitive-behavioral group program, Growing Pro-Social (GPS), in reducing early maladaptive
      schemas and cognitive distortions (primary outcomes), as well as anger, shame and paranoia
      (secondary outcomes). The GPS's impact on behavioral change (e.g., in the reduction of
      disciplinary incidents and prison records) was also tested, in order to ascertain if changes
      observed in cognitive and emotional variables were reflected in a more adjusted behavioral
      pattern. Personality Disorders were also tested as moderators of treatment effects.
    

Detailed description: 
      This was a randomized controlled trial with blind assessments, carried out in nine prisons in
      three city areas in mainland Portugal (Lisbon, Oporto and Coimbra) and in the Madeira Island.

      After the study was approved by the Head of the General Directorate of Reintegration and
      Prison Services of the Portuguese Ministry of Justice, a list of potential participants who
      did not meet the exclusion criteria was made available to the research team by psychologists
      from the justice system. Next, a large sample of participants was randomly selected using a
      random number table by a research assistant who was blind to any personal information about
      each inmate. Then, a first meeting between the research team and the randomized inmates
      occurred, in which researchers invited inmates to participate voluntarily. In this meeting,
      researchers explained the goals of the study and presented a brief overview of the
      intervention program. It was also explained to inmates that their participation in the study
      would not impact their sentencing in any way.

      Participants who agreed to participate, gave written informed consent, completed the baseline
      assessment, and were randomly assigned to treatment conditions (treatment and control groups)
      using a random number table by a research assistant who was blind to any information about
      each participant. Afterwards, the research team informed the psychologists in each prison of
      the result of the randomization so that GPS could be initiated. Participants in the control
      group were informed that they would be offered the GPS treatment after the study's completion
      (including the follow-up period).

      Besides baseline assessment, participants completed the mid-assessment (after the 20th
      session of the program), post-treatment assessment (at the end of GPS) and follow-up
      assessment (12 months after GPS completion). Staff who conducted randomization did not serve
      as therapists or accessors, and accessors were blind to condition assignment.
      Respondent-specific codes were used to link the data from one time-point to the next one.

      GPS's facilitators were chosen among the psychologists who already had training and
      experience in delivering the program with inmates (who were not selected for this study). In
      order to assure program integrity and consistency, facilitators received regular supervision
      by the research team (including the program's main author) during the time GPS was run in
      prisons. Moreover, the program's structured and manualized design ensures integrity, at least
      partially.
    

Intervention name(s): Growing Pro-Social Program; Treatment As Usual
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Other
Intervention description(s): GPS is a structured cognitive-behavioral group program aimed to reduce the prominence of early maladaptive schemas; TAU in Portuguese prisons is primarily aimed to increase educational and professional qualifications
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Treatment