Child -focused education sessions for perpetrators of domestic violence

This study examined the effectiveness of using a child-focused education session based upon Prochaska and DiClemente's Transtheoretical Model to motivate perpetrators of domestic violence to change during their first month of treatment. The goal of the session was to evoke the processes of change by making them aware of the effect of exposure to domestic violence on children. The session was designed to be both dramatic and conscious-raising in an attempt to help them weigh the pros and cons of changing and touch them at the interpersonal level. Participants were matched and randomly assigned to either the experimental (N = 58) or control/comparison group (N = 44). The experimental child-focused education session focused on both why exposure to domestic violence is traumatizing and the common effects of exposure. Participants in the experimental session also listened to an actual "911" tape of a child involved in a domestic dispute and viewed a video tape of a traumatized child from a violent home. Participants were asked to complete the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment-Domestic Violence (URICA-DV)/Attitudes and Behaviors Survey at Baseline, Pre-Treatment, Post-Treatment, and one-month Follow-Up in order to estimate their stages of change during each phase. It was determined the participants' readiness to change scores prior to treatment followed the same pattern as reported in previous research on participants during the first month of treatment. Approximately, 63% of participants were estimated to be in the Precontemplation stage at baseline. After attending the child-focused educational session, only approximately 14% of the participants remained in the Precontemplation stage. Participants who received the treatment demonstrated statistically significant positive increases in readiness to change scores when compared to participants in the control/comparison group. Moreover, these scores were maintained at one-month follow-up with some additional increases in motivation to change.