Maternal report on child outcome after a community-based program following intimate partner violence KARIN GRIP, KJERSTIN ALMQVIST, ANDERS G. BROBERG Grip K, Almqvist K, Broberg AG. Maternal report on child outcome after a community-based program following intimate partner violence. Nord J Psychiatry 2011;00:1–9. Background: This study examined the perceived effectiveness of a 15-week community-based program for 46 children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) and their mothers. Aims: The primary aims were to describe the children who entered one of the existing community- based programs in terms of behavioral problems and to evaluate the impact of the program on children’s general behavioral functioning as assessed by their mothers. Results: Children’s rated behavioral problems (SDQ) dropped following treatment; the effect size was in the medium range. The social impairment caused by the problems decreased as well. The effect regarding behavioral problems was not related to the degree of exposure to IPV or the mothers own changes in trauma symptoms following treatment. Results were analyzed as well at the individ- ual level with the Reliable Change Index (RCI), which showed that the majority of children were unchanged following treatment. Conclusions: One implication from the study is the need for baseline screening and assessment. About half of the current sample had a clinical symptom picture indicating the need for specialized psychiatric/psychotherapeutic treatment. Furthermore, the reduction in behavioral problems was significant but many children still had high levels of behavioral problems after treatment, indicating a need of a more intense or a different type of intervention. • Clinical significance, Community-based service, Intervention, Intimate partner violence. Karin Grip, Licensed psychologist & psychotherapist, Ph.D. student, Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. E-mail: Karin.Grip@psy.gu.se; Accepted 12 September 2011. I ntimate partner violence (IPV) is a well-documented source of trauma, which often is extended over years, and becomes a more or less chronic condition of stress for family members (1). According to self-reports from Swedish youth, approximately 8–10% of children have experienced at least one incidence of IPV during their upbringing (2, 3). IPV and other forms of violence within the family (e.g. child abuse) frequently co-occur (4, 5). A substantial proportion of children exposed to IPV develop distress and psychological symptoms in the clin- ical range (6), and externalizing and internalizing prob- lems are prevalent (7, 8). The levels of stress and psychiatric symptoms are usually high in women sub- jected to IPV (9, 10) and a high symptom load in moth- ers subjected to IPV has been associated with more adjustment problems in the child (11–13). Over the past 15 years, there has been a growth in programs developed to assist children suffering from exposure to IPV. Many of the programs come from North America and have a similar format of about 10 weekly 1–2-h themed group sessions, sometimes accom- panied by group support for mothers. Common goals are to encourage children to share their experiences, learn about safety planning and to increase the child’s func- tioning in general, e.g. (14–20). Presently few of these programs have been sufficiently evaluated (6, 21, 22), despite the fact that one of the first studies regarding interventions tailored for these children and their mothers were published almost three decades ago (23).The lack of evaluations is probably in part related to many of the difficulties associated with the population under study. Some identified barriers to outcome research with children exposed to IPV and their mothers are: unstable basic needs like housing and employment, frequent moving for safety reasons or changed or disconnected telephone numbers making it hard to keep in contact (24). In Sweden, some policy changes have recently been made to combat violence in intimate relationships. Chil- dren exposed to IPV are now regarded as victims of © 2011 Informa Healthcare DOI: 10.3109/08039488.2011.624632 Nord J Psychiatry Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by 85.227.49.5 on 11/04/11 For personal use only.