Efficacy of Spiritually-Oriented and Psycho-Educational Domestic Violence Treatment Groups: A Comparative Study
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Authors
Wong, Philip King
Issue Date
2002
Type
Dissertation
Language
en
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
Domestic Violence is a major problem throughout this country. Studies indicate that between 25% and 31% of homicides in the United States occur in a domestic context (National Institute of Justice Report, 1996). Domestic violence is especially troubling for multicultural and oppressed communities. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence conducted a survey in 1995 estimating that 30.6% of reported domestic violence cases involved people of color. The dropout rates from court-mandated treatment programs for men of color are quite high, averaging from 42% to 60% (Hamberger & Hasting, 1994). The present study focuses on comparing psycho-educationally and spiritually based court-mandated programs in terms of their relative efficacy dropout rate amongst men of color. The study included information about 100 perpetrators of domestic violence admitted to 2 programs: Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland and Berkeley Mental Health in Berkeley, California between 1995 and 1999. Clients in both programs were between the ages of 20 and 58 at the time of treatment and were mandated with 52 weeks of domestic violence treatment. The study utilized existing data from clients' records. Both treatment programs provided the demographic, historical, and discharge information pertinent to the proposed study. The data were analyzed by using chi-square analysis. Sixty percent of the batterers from the spiritually-based domestic violence program completed the 52-week class, as opposed to 40% of the batterers who completed the psycho-educational domestic violence program (x²-4, p <.05). The study also looked at how employment status plays a part in the completion of domestic violence programs. 62% of the batterers who were employed completed the 52-week domestic violence programs, as opposed to only 42% of the batterers who were unemployed (X²=22, p <.001). The study also looked at whether attendance in night versus day programs affected the completion of domestic violence programs. Batterers who attended night-time domestic violence programs had a completion rate of 48%, while batterers who attended day-time domestic violence programs had a completion rate of 52%. Results suggest that the use of spiritually-based domestic violence treatment might be more useful than just psycho-educational treatment alone when working with African-American batterers.