Women's Functioning Following an Intervention for Partner Violence: New Knowledge for Clinical Practice from a 7-Year Study

Abstract

Intimate partner violence affects one in three women worldwide, with women who experience violence almost twice as likely to experience poor mental health, especially depression, compared with women who are not abused. To learn the impact of interventions of safe shelter and justice services on improved mental health and behavior functioning, 300 abused women are interviewed every 4 months in a 7-year prospective study. For this paper, abuse, mental health and resiliency status of these women, 1 year after accessing services for the first time, are reported. Measures of mental health (depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), somatization), and adult behavioral functioning are reported. At 4 months following a shelter stay or justice services, a large effect size was measured for improvement in all mental health measures; however, improvement was the lowest for PTSD. All mental health measures plateaued at 4 months with minimum further improvement at 12 months. Both internal behavioral dysfunctions (withdrawal and somatic complaints) were worse with increased depressive symptoms, as were external behavioral dysfunctions (aggressive and rule-breaking behaviors). A concerning 39.2% of the women had clinical PTSD scores at 12 months following receipt of safe shelter or justice services, compared with a much lower percentage of women with clinical depression (14.2%), clinical somatization (9.4%), and clinical anxiety (13.5%). Depression was a significant positive predictor of internal and external behavioral dysfunctions, indicating that women who had higher levels of depression tended to report more internal dysfunctions (withdrawal, anxiety, somatization) and more external behaviors (aggression and rule-breaking).

A nurse-delivered, clinic-based intervention to address intimate partner violence among low-income women in Mexico City: findings from a cluster randomized controlled trial

“…However, these initial impacts at T2 may not have persisted due to lack of ongoing structural support outside of the nurse delivered intervention, as this intervention did not address social norms or community context, or seek to improve other support services for women experiencing violence. A 7-year, US-based prospective study of women who sought social services for IPV experiences yielded similar short- and long-term findings regarding mental health [31]. Other health sector-based RCTs in non-LMIC settings have shown mixed findings regarding improvements in mental health, including quality of life [5, 10, 32].…”

A Risk Assessment Tool to Predict Sustained PTSD Symptoms Among Women Reporting Abuse

“…In their sample, PTSD was associated with family of origin sexual abuse and higher current levels of financial difficulties. Koci et al 8 reported that 12 months after seeking a restraining order from a District Attorney's office or safe shelter in a woman's shelter, 39.2% of women had clinical level PTSD symptom scores.…”

Evaluating an Intergenerational Model to Explain the Path From Violence Against Mothers to Child Behavior and Academic Outcomes

“…In the United States, one in 15 children may witness partner violence every year (Hamby, Finkelhor, Turner, & Ormrod, 2011). In samples of women who experienced partner violence and sought assistance from the justice department or from a shelter, from 39% (Koci et al, 2014) to 47% (Johnson & Zlotnick, 2012) experienced chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). When mothers experience partner violence and have PTSD, their children are at greater risk for behavior problems than children whose mothers experience partner violence but do not have PTSD (Symes, McFarlane, Fredland, Maddoux, & Zhou, 2016; van Ee, Kleber, & Jongmans, 2016).…”