Evaluating treatment efficacy by triangulation.

The project 'Efficacy of Support Groups for Mexican American Widows' was evaluated by triangulating results collected from different points of view. These included changes after one year in (1) measurement scores of standardized instruments, (2) assessment of adjustment to role of widow by the outsider and (3) evaluation by the widow herself. When subjects were categorized by their assignment to experimental or control groups, the scores on standardized instruments including the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Center for Epidemiologic Study of Depression (CES-D), Anxiety State, Life Satisfaction and new scales measuring Somatic symptoms and Emotional symptoms had decreased from time 1 to time 5 for all widows. However, the widows participating in support groups showed significantly improved changes in these scores. The outsiders found the women who participated in the support groups to have a far better change to the role of widow than the control widows. The support group widows themselves described more positive changes in themselves than did control widows.