How effective are Balint group leaders?

Objectives: Balint leadership until today is based on views of experts. Empirical research is still lacking. This paper reports about leadership effects in Balint groups measured by the newly developed Balint Group Questionnaire (BGSQ). The questionnaire comprises three scales: Scale 1 - Reflection of Transference Dynamics in the Doctor-Patient Relationship, Scale 2 - Emotional and Cognitive Learning, Scale 3 - Case Mirroring in the Group Dynamic. Results: 87 out of 107 cooperating Balint group leaders had six or more participants who filled out the questionnaire after a Balint session. Based on the scale scores of the BGSQ from 1459 medical participants we found three clusters of differentially effective leadership. 52 leaders (59.8%) belonged to the most effective cluster in scale 1, 11 leaders (12.6 %) were particularly effective in scale 2, and 21 leaders (24.1%) in scale 3. Five out of 87 leaders were found most effective for all three scales. No other influencing factors predicted leadership effectiveness. Conclusions: This is the first quantitative study to differentiate leadership effects on learning processes of participants of Balint groups. The importance for training of Balint group leaders is discussed. More research regarding predictive variables and helpful leadership interventions is needed.