Description: Men referred by the courts to a counseling program for woman battering will be tested with the Child Abuse Potential Inventory at program intake. Those who test positive will be randomly assigned to an additional counseling group on parenting or to only the counseling group for women battering. The relative effectiveness of the parenting group in reducing child abuse will be assessed through clinical records, police records, and reports from the men's female partners 6-months after program completion.
Goal: to assess the extent of child abuse potential among men ordered by the courts to a batterer counseling program and evaluate the effectiveness of specialized parenting education in reducing this potential.
Principal Investigator: Edward Gondolf
Source of funding: Child Trust Fund (CTF), PA, Department of Public Welfare, via Domestic Abuse Counseling Center of Pittsburgh
Type of Study: Experimental Evaluation
Effort: 10%
Contract length: 3 years
Period: September 1997 to August 2000
Total Amount: $165,000 ($35,000 is allocated for the principal investigator)