Citation

Song L. Br. J. Soc. Work 2015; 45(2): 527-548.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/bjsw/bct134

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Over the past decade, protection service and treatment for victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) have been the major area of social work practice in Taiwan. This study examined the impact the services could bring to the victims with the focus on clients' changes of self. Especially, the association between the utilisation of empowerment strategies and the changes was explored. Five groups of contextual variables were also taken into account, and the relative importance between the utilisation of empowerment strategies and the contextual variables was tested through model comparisons. Data were collected from 243 social workers through a survey. The findings revealed multiple domains of clients' changes of self. The utilisation of empowerment strategies was the most important correlate of the changes. The unique contribution of this variable to clients' changes of self was 13.9 per cent, whereas it was much lower for the contextual variables (7.2 per cent). The contextual variables, especially life satisfaction, service provision and causes of violence, contribute to such changes through the utilisation of empowerment strategies. Workers' life satisfaction was the second most important correlate of such changes. The facilitations on the utilisation of empowerment strategies, workers' life satisfaction and more services to the victims of IPV are discussed.