Nice one Bruce. I think I agree that it should be communicated like you say for reasons 2 and 3
I don’t think this is a good proxy for their main programs though, as this RCT looks a very different thing than their regular programming. I think other RCTs on group therapy in adult women from the region are better proxies than this study on adolescents.
Why do you think it’s a particularly good proxy? In my mind the same org doing a different treatment, (that seems to work but only a little for a short ish time) with many similarities to their regular treatment of course.
Like I said a year ago, I would have much rather this has been an RCT on Strongminds regular programs rather than this one on a very different program for adolescents. I understand though that “does similar group psychotherapy also work for adolescents” is a more interesting question from a researcher’s perspective, although less useful for all of us deciding just how good regular StrongMinds group psychotherapy is.
It sounds like you’re interpreting my claim to be “the Baird RCT is a particularly good proxy (or possibly even better than other RCTs on group therapy in adult women) for the SM adult programme effectiveness”, but this isn’t actually my claim here; and while I think one could reasonably make some different, stronger (donor-relevant) claims based on the discussions on the forum and the Baird RCT results, mine are largely just: “it’s an important proxy”, “it’s worth updating on”, and “the relevant considerations/updates should be easily accessible on various recommendation pages”. I definitely agree that an RCT on the adult programme would have been better for understanding the adult programme.
(I’ll probably check out of the thread here for now, but good chatting as always Nick! hope you’re well)
Nice one Bruce. I think I agree that it should be communicated like you say for reasons 2 and 3
I don’t think this is a good proxy for their main programs though, as this RCT looks a very different thing than their regular programming. I think other RCTs on group therapy in adult women from the region are better proxies than this study on adolescents.
Why do you think it’s a particularly good proxy? In my mind the same org doing a different treatment, (that seems to work but only a little for a short ish time) with many similarities to their regular treatment of course.
Like I said a year ago, I would have much rather this has been an RCT on Strongminds regular programs rather than this one on a very different program for adolescents. I understand though that “does similar group psychotherapy also work for adolescents” is a more interesting question from a researcher’s perspective, although less useful for all of us deciding just how good regular StrongMinds group psychotherapy is.
It sounds like you’re interpreting my claim to be “the Baird RCT is a particularly good proxy (or possibly even better than other RCTs on group therapy in adult women) for the SM adult programme effectiveness”, but this isn’t actually my claim here; and while I think one could reasonably make some different, stronger (donor-relevant) claims based on the discussions on the forum and the Baird RCT results, mine are largely just: “it’s an important proxy”, “it’s worth updating on”, and “the relevant considerations/updates should be easily accessible on various recommendation pages”. I definitely agree that an RCT on the adult programme would have been better for understanding the adult programme.
(I’ll probably check out of the thread here for now, but good chatting as always Nick! hope you’re well)
Nice one 100% agree no need to check in again!