AN ADVOCACY INTERVENTION PROGRAM FOR WOMEN WITH ABUSIVE PARTNERS - 6-MONTH FOLLOW-UP

Presented the 6-month follow-up findings of an experimental interventi on designed to provide postshelter advocacy services to women with abu sive partners. The intervention involved randomly assigning half the r esearch participants to receive the free services of an advocate, 4 to 6 hours per week, for the first 10 weeks postshelter. One hundred for ty-one battered women were interviewed about their experiences immedia tely upon their exit from a domestic violence shelter. 95% of the samp le were interviewed 10 weeks thereafter (postintervention), and 93% we re successfully tracked and interviewed 6 months later. At the 6-month follow-up, participants in both groups reported increased social supp ort, increased quality of life, less depression, less emotional attach ment to their assailants, and an increased sense of personal power. Al though women in both groups reported some decrease in physical abuse o ver time, there were no statistically significant differences between those with and those without advocates, and abuse continued to be a pr oblem for many women. Those who were still involved with their assaila nts continued to experience higher levels of abuse and had been more e conomically dependent upon the men prior to entering the shelter. Wome n who had worked with advocates continued to report being more satisfi ed with their overall quality of life than did the women in the contro l group.