The Provision of Advocacy Services to Women Leaving Abusive Partners

Abstract

The current research was designed to examine the impact of providing short-term advocacy services to women leaving battered women's shelters. Previous research has suggested that a critical reason so many women remain with or return to their abusive partners is lack of access to community resources necessary for independent living. This study employed a true experimental design and was longitudinal, interviewing women four times over the first five months after they left a battered women's shelter. Women in the experimental condition received intensive, one-on-one services with trained paraprofessional advocates for a period of 10 weeks. Advocates assisted women in gaining access to needed community resources. Women in the control condition received no additional services. Findings corroborated earlier research that suggested that battered women often lack many resources needed to live independently of their assailants. Results further indicated that women who worked with advocates reported being more effective in accessing resources than did the women in the control condition. Implications for further research are discussed.