Date of Award

1990

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

First Advisor

Susan Myers

Second Advisor

James D. Evans

Third Advisor

Deb Page-Adams

Abstract

This study was an effort to provide a research basis from which to judge domestic violence shelter programs' effectiveness in empowering battered women. The instrument used to gather statistical information was the Survey for Residential Clients of Shelters for Women CSRCSW>, a 20-item, self-report questionnaire, designed to measure empowerment at pretest and posttest intervals. The subjects were 25 battered women who were sheltered at The Women's Center, in St . Charles, Missouri, from 21 to 30 days. These women participated in an intensive, highly-structured program geared toward independent living , and empowerment, defined as the renewed ability to act in one's own best self-interest . Three hypotheses were formed regarding changes that were expected to occur to indicate that The Women ' s Center's domestic violence program empowers battered women . The fourth hypothesis was that the subjects' expressed-attitude changes from admission to discharge would be positively correlated with their expressed-intention changes. All four hypotheses were supported by the research . It is imperative that shelter services are empowering for they are seen as the only satisfactory solution for the problems faced by battered women and their children. To be considered successful, a domestic violence intervention program should be able to demonstrate that cognitive-emotional changes occurred in the battered woman which enhanced her sense of personal power .

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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