Stages of Change and the Group Treatment of Batterers in Montgomery County, Maryland, 2003-2006
Description
The goal of this project was to compare the effectiveness of a 26-week stages of change (SOC) group treatment approach with a standard Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Gender-Reeducation (CBTGR) group treatment approach; to assess potential mediators of change; to conduct analyses on individual readiness to change as a moderator of treatment condition in predicting outcomes; to conduct exploratory analyses comparing the effectiveness of these 2 approaches in Spanish-speaking groups; and to assess the integrity of the 2 treatments with respect to therapist adherence.
Male clients who were referred to the Montgomery County, Maryland, Abused Persons Program (APP) between June 2003 and January 2006 and who were appropriate for participation in either the English-speaking or Spanish-speaking 26-week group, were randomly assigned to either a Stage of Change (SOC) Treatment Format or a Cognitive-Behavioral Gender-Reeducation Format (CBTGR). All participants at the APP routinely underwent a standard intake procedure. Data collection consisted of (1) an intake interview and questionnaires completed by the batterer at intake, (2) an initial telephone interview of the partner, (3) data collected from the batterer at mid-treatment and post-treatment, (4) data collected at the end of treatment on the number of sessions attended, and (5) telephone-based follow-up information received from the partner at 6 and 12 months post-intake.
The data file contains 550 cases and 901 variables.
For the Abuser Intake Interview, the abuser was asked information regarding his age, education, employment status, income, relationship to the victim partner, current contact, children in common, and history of abuse and trauma. As part of this intake, the offender completed several instruments including (1) the Conflict Tactics Scales-Revised (CTS2), (2) the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (URICA), (3) the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), (4) the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), (5) the Generality of Violence-Revised (GVQ-R), (6) Perceptions of Procedural Justice, and (7) the Dissociative Violence Scale (DVS).
The victim partner was asked about demographics as well as relationship status, children in common, and current contact with the batterer. As part of this interview, the victim partner also completed (1) the CTS2 items as they pertained to the batterer's behavior toward her in the previous six months and over the course of their relationship, (2) the Danger Assessment Scale (DAS), and (3) the Process of Change in Abused Women Scale (PROCAWS).
At 8 and 16 weeks into treatment, APP staff administered the Working Alliance Inventory -- Short Form (WAI-S) along with the Group Cohesion Scale (GES-COH).