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This study examined the association between sexual relationship power, intimate partner violence, and condom use among African American and Hispanic urban girls. In this sample of 56 sexually active girls, 50% did not use condoms consistently and therefore were at higher risk for acquiring HIV or sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Teens who experienced more intimate partner violence had a significantly higher likelihood of inconsistent condom use and therefore a greater risk for HIV/STDs. Girls' sense of sexual control in their relationships was not directly associated with inconsistent condom use but was inversely related to verbal and emotional abuse. Interventions aimed at reducing HIV/STD risk for adolescent girls need to address patterns of dominance and control in adolescent relationships as well as multiple forms of partner violence. This suggests the need for multilevel intervention approaches that promote girls' agency and multiple ways to keep girls safe from perpetrators of partner abuse. Keywords: adolescents; prevention; condom use; partner abuse; relationship power: intimate partner violence

This study explored battered mothers' perceptions of their interactions with child protective services (CPS) workers to increase understanding about how child welfare workers and policies can have negative as well as positive impacts on women's and children's lives. The research was guided by two feminist frameworks: structured action theory and social entrapment theory. Twenty women participated in the in-depth, qualitative interviews. Most felt misunderstood and unsupported by their CPS workers and thought that this treatment directly harmed them and their children. Many batterers manipulated caseworkers and escaped sanctions, which contributed to negative consequences. Some women received helpful responses from their caseworkers and viewed such support as invaluable. Implications for social work practice are discussed. Keywords: battered women; child protection workers; failure to protect; domestic violence; battered mothers

Sixty-one survivors of domestic or sexual abuse participated in focus groups to discuss their perceptions of mandatory reporting by health care professionals. Only one participant believed that medical providers should notify the police when a woman seeks treatment. This survivor's experience was different from that of most of the other participants in that she was raped by a stranger. The remaining participants were unanimous in their belief that medical reporting should not be mandatory until a number of changes are made in the system to promote victims' safety. The survivors shared numerous examples of having been revictimized by the child protection system, health care system, mass media, and especially the criminal legal system. Practice, policy, and research implications are discussed. Keywords: domestic abuse; health care; mandatory reporting; sexual assault

More and more researchers, evaluators, and policy makers are recognizing that in order to best understand the factors precipitating, supporting, and prohibiting intimate violence against women, we must often gather information directly from battered women themselves. Such data collection, however, is not without its risks to the women involved in such studies. It is important that researchers and evaluators consider ethical issues, especially but not limited to those related to safety and confidentiality, before attempting to gather information either directly from battered women or through their records or files. This article provides a number of practical strategies and protocols that have been used successfully when gathering sensitive information from and about women with abusive partners. Keywords: safety; confidentiality; ethical; domestic violence

Finding safe, affordable housing is one of the greatest obstacles that women who leave abusive partners face. In response, advocates for battered women have begun to offer transitional supportive housing (TSH) programs. This article reports on interviews with 55 key stakeholders of these programs (direct service staff, current participants, former participants, and shelter residents) to examine the degree to which TSH programs fulfill the needs of the women who use them. Consistent with other research on empowerment-based services, the study found that the women were most satisfied when services were provided in a respectful and individualized manner. The women's recommendations included the implementation of safety protocols and the need for a variety of support services that should be offered but not mandated. Keywords: battered women; domestic violence; transitional housing; services for women

The effectiveness of a strengths- and community-based support and advocacy intervention for battered women and their children was examined. The study included a longitudinal, experimental design and employed multimethod strategies to measure children's exposure to abuse and their self-competence over a period of 8 months. Maternal experience of abuse and maternal well-being were also assessed. The experimental intervention involved advocacy for mothers and their children and a 10-week support and education group for the children. Families in the experimental condition received the free services of a trained paraprofessional for 6 to 8 hours per week over 16 weeks. Eighty mothers and their 80 children participated in the study. Findings were modest but promising. Children in the experimental condition reported significantly higher self-competence in several domains compared to children in the control group. The intervention caused improvement in women's depression and self-esteem over time. Policy, practice and research implications are discussed.

This article examines the relationship between domestic abuse and income level on women's physical health. The authors maintain that physical abuse and poverty contribute to women's poor physical health, with physical abuse being a stronger factor than income level.

This article discusses the continuous abuse women face despite their

Although researchers have begun to examine the long-term impact of exposure to domestic violence on children, most studies focus exclusively on the mother-child dyad in examining children's adjustment. The presence and behavior of the abuser has been noticeably absent, even though such variables are likely to relate to children's well-being. This study presents evidence that the abuser's relationship to the child (whether he is the biological father, stepfather/father figure, or nonfather figure) is an important variable in understanding children's adjustment. Although level of physical abuse of the children did not differ by group, stepfathers were more emotionally abusive to the children and the children reported being more fearful of them, compared to the other two groups of abusers. Biological fathers were the most emotionally available to the children, yet these children reported lower self-competency compared to children whose mothers' abusers were not their father figures. Research and policy implications are discussed.

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One of the most daunting obstacles in conducting longitudinal research in the community is retaining participants over extended periods of time. The current study examines this issue and presents a comprehensive protocol designed to maximize retention rates. The techniques developed were highly successful in locating low-income, abused women (97% retention rate at the 24-month follow-up). The authors' experiences indicate not only that it is important to make multiple contacts with participants by phone and in person but that identifying and gaining access to participants' social and community networks is crucial to attaining high retention rates. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

This study examined the levels of depression reported by women who had used a domestic violence shelter. Depressive symptoms were assessed three times: immediately after shelter exit, 10 weeks thereafter, and 6 months later. Whereas 83% of the women reported at least mild depression on the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) scale upon shelter exit, only 58% were depressed 10 weeks later. This did not change at the 6-month follow-up. An ecological, longitudinal model was evaluated to predict battered women's depression 8 1/2 months postshelter exit. Results of hierarchical regression analyses suggested that, after controlling for previous levels of depression, the women's feelings of powerlessness, experience of abuse, and decreased social support contributed to their depression symptoms. The women's scores on these three variables (feelings of powerlessness, abuse, and social support) at 10 weeks postshelter exit and at 6-month follow-up predicted depression at 6 months. Thus, there were both predictive and concurrent effects for these constructs. Implications for clinical and community interventions are discussed.

Rigorously evaluating community‐based interventions for multiply marginalized populations is fraught with challenges under the best of circumstances. This manuscript describes the methodology chosen to evaluate an innovative model designed to help survivors of intimate partner violence obtain safe and stable housing. We justify the choice of evaluation design from a community psychology perspective and detail why we believe the multi‐method, multi‐source design, that also focuses on social context, will maximize ecological validity and, therefore, propel the scale‐up of the intervention if it is found to be effective. Longitudinal data are being collected from program recipients over time, the advocates who worked with them, agency service records, and monthly documentation of agency resources on hand that can impact services provided. Special attention is focused on capturing contextual information that can impact program success. While randomized control trials are still too often heralded as "the gold standard" for measuring intervention effectiveness, we maintain that the current design, which was developed in partnership with key community stakeholders, holds more promise when evaluating many community‐based programs. Highlights: Pragmatic evaluations, designed collaboratively with community partners, can increase ecological validity.Community psychologists can learn from concrete examples of pragmatic, real‐world evaluations.This manuscript describes the development of a multi‐method, longitudinal quasi‐experimental evaluation.The evaluation design includes a focus on how social context can impact program outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Interamericana de Psicología is the property of Sociedad Interamericana de Psicologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Domestic violence shelters have historically gone beyond providing emergency residential space for survivors by assisting in obtaining future housing, employment, health care, child care, or legal services. Domestic violence shelters are expected to operate within an empowerment philosophy, with an understanding that survivors are self-determining, can identify their needs, and know what it takes to meet those needs. Recent research has indicated that, as many shelters have become more rigid in creating rules that survivors must follow to access and retain free temporary housing, the result has been survivors' feelings of disempowerment, the complete opposite of what was originally intended. This study builds on the small amount of research conducted regarding survivors' experiences of shelter rules by specifically examining how rules were perceived to affect empowerment. Seventy-three survivors from two domestic violence shelters were asked about their experiences around specific shelter rules relating to curfew, parenting, chores, time limits, food, alcohol, drugs, and medications. A transcendental phenomenological approach was used to analyze the qualitative data, seeking explanations of how survivors made meaning of the rules and how those rules influenced their empowerment. Among those survivors who found the rules problematic, three major themes emerged: (a) rules acted as barriers to carrying out their normal, day-to-day activities; (b) the shelter staff's flexibility with rules was based on contingencies; and (c) rules negatively affected their psychological well-being, and required them to engage in protective behaviors. Recommendations are made for the reexamination and restructuring of rules within domestic violence shelters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reproductive coercion (RC) is a form of intimate partner violence (IPV) that continues to lack adequate attention by both researchers and practitioners. RC is defined as "male partners' attempts to promote pregnancy in their female partners through verbal pressure and threats to become pregnant (pregnancy coercion), direct interference with contraception (birth control sabotage), and threats and coercion related to pregnancy continuation or termination (control of pregnancy outcomes)." This type of partner violence can have serious consequences on a survivor's health and well-being. Despite the fact that RC has been reported by many women experiencing IPV, and that this type of abuse appears to be disproportionately targeted against marginalized women, little is known about the extent to which advocates either proactively or reactively address it. To redress this, the current study involved a brief online survey sent to domestic violence victim service advocates across the United States and its territories. More than 700 advocates responded about their comfort, practices, and perceived barriers related to RC and survivors' sexual health. Despite identifying (a) low levels of discomfort when discussing most topics relating to RC and (b) few barriers to discussing RC, few advocates reported regularly engaging in RC-related practices. Both greater levels of discomfort and identification of more barriers were associated with less frequent coercion-related practice. Study implications highlight the need for more specialized advocate training, and organizational support for advocates to comfortably and safely provide information and support about RC to survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]