Objective: The purpose of the study was to investigate the differences between intimate partner violence (IPV) and parenting attitudes by race by comparing demographic, parenting, and IPV indicators for African American and White men. Method: The study employed a nonequivalent, control group design in a secondary analysis of 111 men. Results: Analyses indicated that (1) African American men had more children; (2) chi-square tests revealed no statistically significant differences between African American and Caucasian men with respect to IPV perpetration and parenting attitudes; and (3) a logistic regression model indicated that the number of children and a higher risk category for parenting attitudes were significant predictors of race group membership. Conclusion: These findings reveal that having more children is related to a higher level of stress on intimate partner relationships, and these stressors are not evenly distributed across racial groups. Batterer intervention programs should include parenting skills to help perpetrators better cope with such stresses.

A 15-page questionnaire, the North American Domestic Violence Intervention Program Survey, was sent to directors of 3,246 domestic violence perpetrator programs (also known as batterer intervention programs, or BIPs) in the United States and Canada. Respondent contact information was obtained from state Coalitions Against Domestic Violence and from various government agencies (e.g., Attorney General) available on the Internet. Two hundred thirty-eight programs completed and returned the questionnaire, a response rate of 20%. The survey yielded descriptive data on respondent characteristics; program philosophy, structure, content, and service; client characteristics; treatment approach and adjunct services; and group facilitator views on intervention approaches and domestic violence policy and treatment standards. The programs varied in the extent to which they adhere to treatment approaches suggested by the empirical research literature. In addition, chi-square analyses were conducted on the associations between several factors. Significant correlations were found between respondent low level of education and adherence to a feminist-gendered program philosophy; respondent low level of education and use of a shorter assessment protocol; feminist-gendered program philosophy and incorrect facilitator knowledge about domestic violence; and feminist-gendered program philosophy and a program focus on power and control as the primary cause of domestic violence.

Objective

The objective of this research is to identify sociodemographic predictors of depression for a rural population in the US during the COVID-19 pandemic to enhance mental health disaster preparedness.

Methods

This study uses t-tests to differentiate between gender and ethnicity groups regarding depression status; binary logistic regression to identify socio-demographic characteristics that predict depression status; and t-test to differentiate between average depression scores, measured by the PHQ-9, pre-COVID-19 pandemic (2019) and after it's start (2020).

Results

Results indicate that men were less likely than women to report depression. Clients who identified as Latinx/Hispanic were 2.8 times more likely than non-Hispanics to report depression and clients who did not reside in public housing were 19.9% less likely to report depression. There was a statistically significant difference between mean PHQ-9 scores pre- and post-pandemic, with pre-pandemic scores lower on average, with a small effect size.

Conclusions

Building on findings from this study, we propose ways to increase rural access to mental health services, through equitable access to telemedicine, to meet the needs of rural clients to increase disaster preparedness.

The purpose of this research is to identify important predictors, related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, of intimate partner violence (IPV) and to provide insight into communication ecologies that can address IPV in disaster contexts. This study uses a cross-sectional design, with purposive snowball sampling, for primary survey data collected over 10 weeks starting the first week in April 2020. A total of 374 adults participated in the study. Logistic binary regression was used to identify key predictors among sociodemographic characteristics, stress related to COVID-19, and perceived stress of group membership for those who reported IPV experiences. A t test was used to statistically differentiate between IPV-reporters and non-IPV reporters based on perceived stress measured by the Perceived Stress Scale. Results indicated that respondents who reported renting, lost income due to COVID-19, and increased nutritional stress were all more likely to belong to the IPV-reporters group. These findings provide insight into additional stressors related to the ongoing pandemic, such as stress due to income loss, nutritional stress, and renting, and their likelihood of increasing IPV victimization. Taken together, these results indicate that additional communication resources are needed for those affected by IPV. Additional findings and implications are further discussed.

This study investigated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) prevalence among a sample of intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors (n  =  77) who filed for restraining orders in rural Louisiana during the COVID-19 pandemic. IPV survivors were individually interviewed to assess their self-reported levels of perceived stress, resilience, potential PTSD, COVID-19-related experiences, and sociodemographic characteristics. Data were analyzed to differentiate group membership between two groups; non-PTSD and probable PTSD. Results suggest the probable PTSD group had lower levels of resilience and higher levels of perceived stress compared to the non-PTSD group. Findings suggest the importance of providing services during disaster to reduce PTSD for IPV survivors.

In the United States, the judicial system response to violence between intimate partners, or intimate partner violence (IPV), typically mandates that adjudicated perpetrators complete a batterer intervention program (BIP). The social science data has found that these programs, on the whole, are only minimally effective in reducing rates of IPV. The authors examined the social science literature on the characteristics and efficacy of BIPs. More than 400 studies were considered, including a sweeping, recently conducted survey of BIP directors across the United States and Canada. Results of this review indicate that the limitations of BIPs are due, in large part, to the limitations of current state standards regulating these programs and, furthermore, that these standards are not grounded in the body of empirical research evidence or best practices. The authors, all of whom have considerable expertise in the area of domestic violence perpetrator treatment, conducted an exhaustive investigation of the following key intervention areas: overall effectiveness of BIPs; length of treatment/length of group sessions; number of group participants and number of facilitators; group format and curriculum; assessment protocol and instruments; victim contact; modality of treatment; differential treatment; working with female perpetrators; working with perpetrators in racial and ethnic minority groups; working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) perpetrators; perpetrator treatment and practitioner–client relationships; and required practitioner education and training. Recommendations for evidence-based national BIP standards were made based on findings from this review.