Saturday, October 11, 2014

A Low Cost Way to Prevent Domestic Violence in Married Couples


Braithwaite and Fincham (2014) may have found a low cost way to prevent domestic violence in married couples. Domestic violence is most commonly caused by intimate partners such as the spouse (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2014). A computer prevention program created by the researchers called ePrep decreased physical violence in married partners by 90% and the results lasted a year. The prevention program included information about risk factors for relationship problems, communication training, problem solving methods, marital friendship help, and a plan of action that included weekly homework. The program resulted in major decreases in physical violence after completion and at the one-year follow up. Emotional violence also decreased after completion of the program and at the one-year follow up. According to Braithwaite and Fincham (2014) with more testing ePrep may be a low cost answer to helping couples improve their relationship skills and decrease domestic violence in married couples. With the current computer age ePrep could be widely used and may be the best solution for low cost widespread education for couples at risk for domestic violence.
References
Braithwaite, S. R., & Fincham, F. D. (2014). Computer-based prevention of intimate partner violence in marriage. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 5412-5421. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2013.12.006
Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2014). Nonfatal domestic violence, 2003–2012. Retrieved from http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ndv0312.pdf

6 comments:

  1. Hi Christine,
    I found your post very interesting because of my interest in technology. I have done a lot of reading in the technology literature and missed this type of intervention for IPV. I will definitely pull this article! I assume the couple were referred for treatment and ready to change behaviors (Prochaska & Velicer, 1997)?

    Prochaska, J. O., & Velicer, W. F. (1997). The transtheoretical model of health behavior change. American Journal of Health Promotion, 12(1), 38–48.

    De'An Roper

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    1. De'An,

      Thanks for your comment! The sample was 52 couples recruited from a Florida community by advertisements.

      Christine

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  2. Do you think that the problem with domestic violence is that literature indicates it is a problem among spouses? It can happen in any type of relationship. Christine look at this article. This is something that has been done to implement an intervention.
    Foshee, V. A., Dixon, K. S., Ennett, S. T., Moracco, K. E., Bowling, J. M., Chang, L. Y., & Moss, J. L. (2014). The process of adapting a universal dating abuse prevention program to adolescents exposed to domestic violence. Journal of interpersonal violence, 0886260514552278.

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    1. Luis,

      I am definitely aware intimate partner violence can occur within any intimate relationship including teens. In fact intimate partner violence can occur between men and women, gays, or lesbians in initmate relationships. Thank you for the article.

      Delete
  3. Christine, thanks for finding this information!

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  4. Elizabeth,

    I am glad you appreciated the information.

    ReplyDelete