Evaluation of a treatment program for battered wives

Research shows that of the abused wives who remained in a women's protective agency for a period of at least 2 weeks, 50% return to their abusive situation. Several theorists have advocated that battered women remain in their abusive situation because they lack skills necessary to extricate themselves. A program was developed to provide personal and vocational counseling for abused women. Over a 2-week period, abused women who volunteered for the experiment were given the opportunity to participate in group counseling which provided cognitive restructuring therapy, self-assertiveness and communication skills training, problem solving training, body awareness, and vocational counseling. Three groups participated in the experiment: a control group, a group with the COPSystem Interest Inventory and the Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire, and a group with the COPSystem Interest Inventory without the Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire. The group with the COPSystem Interest Inventory administration and interpretation showed significant improvement within group measures from pre- to post-treatment in anxiety, depression, hostility, assertiveness, and self-esteem. The group with the COPSystem Interest Inventory and the Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire utilization showed no significant improvement in any of the measures. It can be concluded that the women in the experimental group with the administration of the COPSystem Interest Inventory benefited from the therapy provided more than the women in the experimental group with both the COPSystem Interest Inventory and the Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire administration and interpretation. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.     

Program evaluation and the commissioning entity

The present decade has witnessed a shift from planning to emphasis on program performance and accountability. However, program evaluation must contend with many different policy preferences articulated by groups and institutions involved with social programs. In particular, the entity commissioning an evaluation expects some policy dmileage from the undertaking. Evaluation intended as an aid to decisionmaking cannot afford to separate the program under study from its organizational and political context.Federal categorical social programs like Head Start fill many needs for many groups. Evaluation preoccupied with experimental rigor often underestimates the need to adapt to political and administrative realities. At the other extreme, excessive accommodation to program ideology and organizational self-interest undermines the credibility of the evaluative process.Its limitations notwithstanding, program evaluation does yield informed policy alternatives. It invites rational public discussion of social programs and adds substance to the process of political bargaining.