Paula T. McWhirter

Differential Therapeutic Outcomes of Community-Based Group Interventions for Women and Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence

Two community-based group therapies, emotion focused versus goal oriented, are compared among women exposed to intimate partner violence (n = 46) and their children ( n = 48) aged between 6 and 12 years. A series of repeated measures analyses are employed to evaluate the effects of time from baseline to postintervention following random assignment. Main and treatment effects for women provide support for the relative effectiveness in increasing quality of social support in the emotion-focused intervention and in the reduction of both family conflict and alcohol use for the goal-oriented intervention.

Enhancing Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Engagement

Abstract Trends in adolescent drug use are encouraging and suggest the importance of preventative programs for youth. Yet, among those who become involved with illicit substances and seek treatment, only a fraction report positive outcomes. This article describes an approach to enhance adolescent participation in substance abuse treatment. Aspects of the transtheoretical model are integrated into a treatment program designed to meet the unique developmental needs of adolescent alcohol and marijuana abusers. The result is a treatment that better engages adolescents in participation, thereby increasing the likelihood for treatment success.

Community Therapeutic Intervention for Women Healing from Trauma

This article investigates a community-based group therapy intervention designed to address specific needs of women in transition as compared to women also in transition, engaged in a traditional, nonclinical womens program. Both interventions were found to increase social network size, decrease social isolation, and decrease financial stress. The group therapy intervention participants also reported increased self-efficacy beliefs. These findings suggest a need to integrate a group therapy intervention into traditional social service facilities that serve women during times of major life transition.

Anger and Violence Prevention: Enhancing Treatment Effects through Booster Sessions

This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of booster sessions on the maintenance of intervention gains following an anger management prevention program: Student Created Aggression Replacement Education Program (SCARE). Participants who had completed the SCARE program a year earlier were randomly assigned into either a booster treatment or treatment as usual. Several scales focusing on anger (State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2/STAXI-2) and empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index /IRI) measured treatment effectiveness pre and post participation in booster sessions. The SCARE booster program appears to have promise for maintaining and increasing treatment effects for the original fifteen-session program, particularly with regards to trait anger and empathy. Suggestions are made for the inclusion of booster sessions to enhance efficacy of interventions designed to decrease youth violence and aggression and maintain school retention.

The Therapeutic Efficacy of Domestic Violence Victim Interventions

A meta-analysis on domestic violence interventions was conducted to determine overall effectiveness of mental health programs involving women and children in joint treatment. These interventions were further analyzed to determine whether outcomes are differentially affected based on the outcome measure employed. To date, no meta-analyses have been published on domestic violence victim intervention efficacy. The 17 investigations that met study criteria yielded findings indicating that domestic violence interventions have a large effect size (d = .812), which decreases to a medium effect size when compared to control groups (d = .518). Effect sizes were assessed to determine whether treatment differed according to the focus of the outcome measure employed: (a) external stress (behavioral problems, aggression, or alcohol use); (b) psychological adjustment (depression, anxiety, or happiness); (c) self-concept (self-esteem, perceived competence, or internal locus of control); (d) social adjustment (popularity, loneliness, or cooperativeness); (e) family relations (mother–child relations, affection, or quality of interaction); and (f) maltreatment events (reoccurrence of violence, return to partner). Results reveal that domestic violence interventions across all outcome categories yield effects in the medium to large range for both internalized and externalized symptomatology. Implications for greater awareness and support for domestic violence treatment and programming are discussed.

Employment Status and Intimate Partner Violence Among Mexican Women

Exploring risk factors and profiles of intimate partner violence in other countries provides information about whether existing theories of this phenomenon hold consistent in different cultural settings. This study will present results of a regression analysis involving domestic violence among Mexican women (n = 83,159). Significant predictors of domestic violence among Mexican women included age, number of children in the household, income, education, self-esteem, family history of abuse, and controlling behavior of the husband. Women’s employment status was not a significant predictor when all variables were included in the model; however, when controlling behavior of the husband was withdrawn from the model, women’s employment status was a significant predictor of domestic violence toward women. Results from this research indicate that spousal controlling behavior may serve as a mediator of the predictive relationship between women’s employment status and domestic violence among Mexican women. Findings provide support for continued exploration of the factors that mediate experiences of domestic violence among women worldwide.

Development of the Indicators of Successful Inclusion Scale (ISIS): Addressing Ecological Concerns.

The Indicators of Successful Inclusion Scale (ISIS) was developed to measure pre-service and practicing educators’ beliefs regarding factors that contribute to educating students with disabilities in general education classrooms. The measure was designed to assess teachers’ beliefs and attitudes related to inclusive education and to consider their possible utility for understanding teachers’ inclusion-related intentions and behaviors. Specifically, the ISIS targets personal and ecological factors thought to influence intentional inclusive practice: beliefs related to the perceived benefits of inclusion, beliefs regarding administrative school support for the practice of inclusion. ISIS scale development, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses yielded discrete subscales addressing teachers’ ecological beliefs. Analyses of internal consistency and test-retest reliability data suggest the ISIS functions in a reliable fashion. Our construct validation procedures yielded evidence supporting the ISIS as a measure of pre-service and practicing teacher beliefs pertaining to inclusive education. Implications for the use of ISIS toward encouraging inclusive practices and enhancing a culture of inclusion are discussed.

Conflicting Epistemologies A Case Study of a Traditional American Indian in Therapy

>> This case study contributes to the development of a flexible and coherent theory of American Indian psychology. It focuses on mental health psychology in the context of therapy with a 63-year-old traditional Southeastern Woodland woman (Selu). Theoretical constructs of American Indian therapeutic perspectives and needs are postulated, based on the client’s and psychologist’s interactions over the course of about one hundred counseling sessions over a 2-year period. One of the strengths of this model is that it emerges from a clinical perspective. Different therapeutic techniques are experimented with, used, abandoned, and merged. Hopefully, the following reflections will help therapists to critically consider psychological perspectives and approaches they may use with traditional American Indians or other nonmajority clients.This case study contributes to the development of a flexible and coherent theory of American Indian psychology. It focuses on mental health psychology in the context of therapy with a 63-year-old traditional Southeastern Woodland woman (Selu). Theoretical constructs of American Indian therapeutic perspectives and needs are postulated, based on the clients and psychologists interactions over the course of about one hundred counseling sessions over a 2-year period. One of the strengths of this model is that it emerges from a clinical perspective. Different therapeutic techniques are experimented with, used, abandoned, and merged. Hopefully, the following reflections will help therapists to critically consider psychological perspectives and approaches they may use with traditional American Indians or other nonmajority clients.

Domestic Violence and Chemical Dependency Co-Morbidity: Promoting Eclectic Responses to Concomitant Mental Health Concerns

Chemical dependency and a history of physical or sexual violence are problems commonly experienced concomitantly among women, yet barriers persist to implementing programs that deal with them together. This article describes an eclectic, cross-problem group intervention designed to acknowledge the specific needs of women who have experienced problems of both chemical dependency and domestic violence. Program evaluation data suggest a positive effect for the proposed intervention, providing support for creating and maintaining policies among mental health provider organizations to recognize and address common co-morbidity.

Interpersonal and relational orientation among pre-service educators: differential effects on attitudes toward inclusion of students with disabilities

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the extent to which pre-service educators’ interpersonal characteristics affected their attitudes toward teaching students with disabilities (inclusion), as measured by the FIRO-B and ATIES pre- and post-course. The FIRO-B was administered to assess expressed and wanted aspects of three interpersonal needs: personal inclusion, affection and control. The ATIES was administered to measure attitudes toward classroom inclusion of students with physical, academic, behavioral and social disabilities. Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed a main effect for wanted inclusion and an interaction effect for expressed inclusion and expressed affection on attitudes toward classroom inclusion. Ultimately, these findings reveal how unique relational characteristics may influence preparation initiatives and may encourage consideration of how individual factors may mediate teacher training and preparation.