The Effectiveness of Outreach Counseling and Support Groups for Battered Women: A Preliminary Evaluation

Abstract

This study evaluates the effectiveness of an outreach counseling and support group intervention for battered women who are not staying in a shelter. The intervention, provided by social workers and other staff members, is relatively unstructured. AB single-case designs are aggregated across 6 women participating in the program. Outcome is assessed via daily telephone moni toring of the frequency of specified thoughts, feelings and behaviors of the women and of abusive behaviors by their partners. Findings do not indicate consistent beneficial intervention effects. Alternative explanations are postulated for the findings, and implications are drawn to enhance future applications of single-case evaluation to this problem area.

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