Motivational interviewing and intimate partner violence: a randomized trial

Abstract

Purpose: To determine if motivational interviewing (MI) improves self-efficacy (primary outcome), depressive symptoms (secondary outcome), and stage-of-readiness-to-change (secondary outcome) among women in abusive relationships.

Methods: Randomized controlled trial among women who experienced intimate partner violence in a current relationship over the past 12 months. Subjects were recruited from two family planning clinics (December 2007 to May 2010). The intervention included an initial face-to-face session and three telephone sessions administered 1-, 2-, and 4-months postenrollment, each using MI to identify personal goals. Controls were referred to community-based resources. Outcomes were measured by self-administered questionnaires before randomization and 6 months later. Modified intent-to-treat analyses of completed participants were conducted using multivariate analysis of variance for continuous outcomes and polytomous logistic regression for categorical outcomes.

Results: Three hundred six eligible women were enrolled (recruitment rate = 64%); 204 completed the 6-month follow-up (completion rate = 67%). Depressive symptoms decreased to a greater extent in MI than referral women (P = .07). Self-efficacy and stage-of-readiness-to-change increased more in MI than referral women, but these differences were not statistically significant.

Conclusions: With a lower than projected sample size, our findings did not achieve statistical significance at the 5% level but suggest a beneficial effect of the MI intervention on reducing depressive symptoms.

Keywords: Depression; Intimate partner violence; Motivational interviewing; Randomized trial; Self-efficacy; Stage-of-readiness-to-change.