Domestic violence survivors' empowerment and mental health: Exploring the role of the alliance with advocates.

This study explored in a sample of help-seeking survivors (N = 370) whether the strength of the alliance between survivors and their advocates is related to lower symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and whether this association is mediated by survivors' sense of empowerment in the domain of safety. The structural equation model we tested also controlled for variables that might influence these relationships, including race/ethnicity, financial strain, and length of stay in the program. As expected, stronger alliance was associated with reduced symptoms of both depression and PTSD, through the mechanism of empowerment in the domain safety. These findings provide direction to programs seeking to establish a theory of change and point the way toward longitudinal research on the nature and function of the alliance as a potential contributor to healing. (PsycINFO Database Record PMID: 27196389 [PubMed - in process]
Source: The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Am J Orthopsychiatry Source Type: research