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Intimate partner violence remains a significant public health issue and survivors often need various forms of support to achieve safety. The increased likelihood of experiencing housing instability and homelessness among survivors has led to an uptake in domestic violence agencies implementing housing-based interventions, such as Domestic Violence Housing First (DVHF), to address survivors' needs. The present study expands on prior research supporting the effectiveness of DVHF to examine situational factors that moderate the outcomes associated with this model among 406 survivors seeking services from domestic violence agencies located in the Pacific Northwestern region of the United States. Using latent profile analysis, participants were grouped into three latent classes: (a) "high abuse/instability," (b) "still affected," and (c) "doing better." Latent transition analysis was used to estimate the probability that participants would transition into a different latent class over time with social support (SS), material hardship, and receipt of DVHF services included as model predictors. Receipt of DVHF predicted improvements in survivors' safety, housing stability, mental health, and well-being, such that receiving DVHF was associated with higher odds of survivors transitioning into the "doing better" class. Social support and material hardship also emerged as significant factors predicting class membership, such that higher levels of social support and financial stability predicted membership in the "doing better" class. Additionally, social support and financial stability appeared to augment receipt of DVHF services, with DVHF being more strongly associated with positive outcomes among participants who also had high levels of social support and lower levels of material hardship. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Survivors of intimate partner violence arrive at the doors of domestic violence (DV) programs with a wide variety of needs, including long-term safety and healing, housing, economic stability, health and well-being, and community connection. Although some DV programs offer holistic approaches to survivors, many focus the vast majority of their attention and resources on providing emotional support and safety planning rather than advocating with survivors for their access to needed resources and opportunities. Although services focused on emotional support and safety planning are important, they alone are not likely to result in the life changes that many survivors are seeking. Programs that provide genuine advocacy for survivors-defined as partnering with them to represent their rights and interests while linking them to concrete resources, protections, and opportunities-have been found to be effective and well received. Although an early pillar of DV programs, this type of advocacy has fallen by the wayside in many agencies. In this article, the authors make a case for re-invigorating advocacy efforts designed to improve the life circumstances of survivors. We argue that such efforts will make DV programs more relevant and sought after by a wider range of survivors and that agencies will see real change occur at both the individual and community levels.

The complex interrelationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization and housing instability has been well established. Being the victim of IPV is a leading cause of homelessness for women, and once someone is homeless, their lives often spiral downward quickly. While some IPV survivors require extensive and possibly long-term assistance to achieve safe and stable housing (especially if they are contending with multiple complex issues), others could avoid homelessness if provided with immediate, individualized, and flexible assistance. For these survivors, whose housing has been otherwise stable but who face homelessness because of a crisis related to IPV, a brief intervention that includes flexible funding can restore a family's equilibrium and prevent the devastating repercussions associated with homelessness. A longitudinal evaluation of a flexible funding program in Washington, D.C., found that this brief, relatively inexpensive intervention may increase housing stability-94% of clients were housed 6 months after funding was received. Implications for both research and practice are discussed.

The Community Advocacy Project is an evidence-based practice that has been shown to lead to numerous positive changes in the lives of intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors. Prior research conducted in the Midwest United States, and with primarily African American and Anglo American survivors, has shown that this short-term, community-based advocacy intervention results in increased safety and quality of life even 2 years after the intervention ends. The current study describes the process of culturally adapting and disseminating this program in Monterrey, Mexico, with a sample of low-income Mexican IPV survivors exposed to a variety of considerable contextual stressors. Interviews were conducted with advocates, advocate supervisors, and survivors to examine the acceptability and utility of the intervention. Twenty-seven IPV survivors, seven advocates, and four advocate supervisors participated in the intervention research. Advocates and their supervisors were highly laudatory, believing the intervention to be culturally relevant and effective. Encouraging changes were found for survivors as well, with positive changes over time being found on safety, quality of life, social support, and depression.

Domestic violence is a potentially traumatizing experience that has devastating psychological and physical consequences. In response, domestic violence shelter programs have focused increasing attention on helping adult and child survivors understand and heal from this trauma. What have come to be called trauma-informed practices include (a) reflecting an understanding of trauma and its many effects on health and behavior, (b) addressing both physical and psychological safety concerns, (c) using a culturally informed strengths-based approach, (d) helping to illuminate the nature and effects of abuse on survivors' everyday experience; and (e) providing opportunities for clients to regain control over their lives. Despite the proliferation of these practices, little is known about their effects on survivors. In response, the current study explored the extent to which trauma-informed practices, as experienced by shelter residents, related to changes in their levels of self-efficacy, safety-related empowerment, and depressive symptoms over the course of approximately 30 days in shelter. Fifty-seven shelter residents from 4 programs in Ohio completed surveys shortly after arriving in shelter and again before exit. Their perception of the degree to which they received trauma-informed services was associated with significant improvement in their self-efficacy and safety-related empowerment, but had no impact on depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms decreased over time, regardless of receipt of trauma-informed practice. Implications for policy and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).)

The purpose of community-based domestic violence crisis housing programs (e.g., shelters) is to provide a safe setting that promotes empowerment for survivors of intimate partner violence. For staff to reach this aim, the program must have formal structures and processes in place to support such efforts. This study explored how low-barrier and voluntary service policies influenced staff practices and survivor empowerment. Low-barrier policies require that programs remove barriers that prevent survivors, particularly those who have mental health concerns and/or addictions, from being able to access services. A voluntary service policy states that survivors have the right to choose which services, if any, they would like to engage in during their stay at the program. Survivors' ability to stay at the housing program is not contingent on their participation in program services. This exploratory-sequential (QUAL→ quan) mixed-method study examined how low-barrier and voluntary service policies influenced staff behavior and how these behaviors then related to survivor empowerment. Qualitative results revealed that low-barrier and voluntary service were guided by cultural values of justice and access, encouraged survivor-centered practices among staff, and were believed to promote survivor autonomy. Quantitative results suggested that when survivors perceived they had a choice to engage in program services or meet with an advocate, their empowerment increased. This study has implications for domestic violence organizational practice and provides evidence about the contextual factors that support individual empowerment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Over the last 4 decades, domestic violence (DV) programs-both residential and nonresidential-have sprung up in communities across the country with the aim of helping survivors become safe. These programs place strong emphasis on the relationship between the advocate and survivor as critical to becoming safer and healing from the trauma of abuse. Yet little research has demonstrated the extent to which specific aspects of the advocate-survivor alliance are related to specific indicators of survivor well-being, nor shown what factors might mediate that relationship. This study explored in a sample of help-seeking survivors (N = 370) whether the strength of the alliance between survivors and their advocates is related to lower symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and whether this association is mediated by survivors' sense of empowerment in the domain of safety. The structural equation model we tested also controlled for variables that might influence these relationships, including race/ethnicity, financial strain, and length of stay in the program. As expected, stronger alliance was associated with reduced symptoms of both depression and PTSD, through the mechanism of empowerment in the domain safety. These findings provide direction to programs seeking to establish a theory of change and point the way toward longitudinal research on the nature and function of the alliance as a potential contributor to healing. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).)

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive social problem impacting the psychological well-being of millions of US women annually. The extant literature draws our attention to the devastating mental health effects of IPV, but largely overlooks how ecological factors may further explain survivors' well-being. This study examined how neighborhood disadvantage may contribute to survivors' compromised well-being, in addition to the abuse women experienced. Neighborhood disorder and fear of victimization significantly impacted survivors' well-being, over and above abuse. Although between-women effects of neighborhood disorder and fear were unrelated to change in women's depression or quality of life (QOL), significant within-woman effects were detected. Change in neighborhood disorder was negatively associated with change in QOL, and this relationship was fully mediated by fear. While no direct relationship between change in neighborhood disorder and depression was detected, an indirect effect through survivors' fear was revealed. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Longitudinal research designs are relatively rare in the academic literature on rape and sexual assault despite their tremendous methodological rigor and scientific utility. In the interest of promoting wider use of such methods, we conducted a methodological review of projects that have used prospective longitudinal designs to study the occurrence of sexual victimization throughout the lifespan and/or the process of change during rape recovery (N = 32 projects). Five questions were examined: (a) What were the substantive foci of these longitudinal studies? (b) How were survivors recruited? (c) What participation rates were typical? (d) How long were participants followed over time and with what success rates? and (e) What incentives were used to increase participation? Most studies focused on postassault sequelae and recruited survivors from hospital emergency departments and other first-response help-seeking sites with highly variable participation rates. Retention rates were comparable across studies (approximately 70%).

Intimate partner violence is a serious and pervasive social problem with deleterious consequences for survivors' well-being. The current study involved interviewing 160 survivors 6 times over 2 years to examine the role of social support in explaining or buffering these negative psychological consequences. The authors examined both between- and within-persons variability to explore women's trajectories regarding their experiences of abuse, social support, depression, and quality of life (QOL). Findings revealed the complex role of social support on women's well-being. Evidence was found for main, mediating, and moderating effects of social support on women's well-being. First, social support was positively related to QOL and negatively related to depression. Social support also partially explained the effect of baseline level and subsequent change in physical abuse on QOL and depression over time, partially mediated the effects of change in psychological abuse, and moderated the impact of abuse on QOL. The buffering effects of social support were strongest at lower levels of abuse. Implications for future research and intervention are discussed.

Although researchers have found that survivors of intimate partner violence seek support from a multitude of sources, ranging from professionals to informal support networks, little is known about the extent to which community members reach out to help survivors. This study explored the type of support provided to survivors and various factors that relate to individuals' willingness to help. Survivors were more likely to be helped by women, younger individuals, those who strongly endorsed criminal justice interventions for perpetrators, and those who perceived intimate partner violence as a frequently occurring issue in their communities. Two additional factors were found to relate to an individual's likelihood of assisting others, including witnessing intimate partner violence as a child and prior victimization. Further research is needed in this area to explore helper, survivor, and contextual characteristics that may affect one's likelihood to offer assistance to survivors.

Economic abuse is part of the pattern of behaviors used by batterers to maintain power and control over their partners. However, no measure of economic abuse exists. This study describes the development of the Scale of Economic Abuse, which was designed to fill this gap. Interviews were conducted with 103 survivors of domestic abuse, each of whom responded to measures of economic, physical, and psychological abuse as well as economic hardship. Results provide evidence for the reliability and validity of the scale. This study is an important first step toward understanding the extent and impact of economic abuse experienced by survivors.

Women with abusive partners utilize a variety of coping strategies to deal with and heal from the violence and sense of betrayal they have experienced. For many women, their trust in a higher power and the support they receive from their faith community is integral to their healing. Of 151 women interviewed for this study, the majority (97%) noted that spirituality or God was a source of strength or comfort for them. Extent of religious involvement predicted increased psychological well-being and decreased depression. For women of color, greater religious involvement was also related to increased social support. Implications for research and direct services are discussed.