Development and implementation of self-supportive intervention on post-traumatic stress symptoms and quality of life among battered wives of Madhya Pradesh, India: A pilot study

Abstract

Background: In India, intimate partner violence against women is a major problem that leads to terrible physical, sexual, emotional, psychological and economic consequences. In 55-92% of women who have a history of being abused wives, high levels of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder have been discovered. Therefore, the quality of life is significantly low among them regardless of regions and countries. The purpose of the current study was to create and evaluate the effectiveness of a self-supportive intervention on the quality of life and post-traumatic stress symptoms among abused wives in Madhya Pradesh, India. Methods:  The post-traumatic Symptoms Scale Interview version for DSM-5 (PSS-I-5) and WHO Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL) were used in this study as assessment tools. The Need assessment results showed that 51% of battered wives met the criteria of PTSD symptoms from moderate to severe and 83% experienced low quality of life. This study utilized a mixed research method and was executed in three phases, based on the main three elements of Conklin’s (1997) program development model, namely (1) planning; (2) design and implementation; and (3) evaluation of the newly created Self-Supportive Intervention program (SSI). The SSI program consisted of six modules, focused on addressing the issues that emerged through qualitative data and need assessments. Results: Excellent inter-rater reliability (.845) was found in the expert evaluation's findings, which supported the recommendation to use the SSI as it is with minor modification. The SSI was further pilot-tested for its feasibility with 10 battered wives and validated through the paired sample t-test, which showed a substantial decrease in post-traumatic stress symptoms and enhanced quality of life at 0.05 level of significance. Conclusion: This is an indication that the SSI program can be recommended as a psychological intervention in eliminating the PTSD symptoms and improving the quality of life.