MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES IN INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE OFFENDER INTERVENTION: INDIVIDUALIZED MOTIVATIONAL PLANS

Treatment adherence and motivation to change are among the main challenges to improve the effectiveness of batterer intervention programs (BIPs). The aim of this study was to examine whether adding a motivational strategy (i.e., Individualized Motivational Plan, IMP) increase the BIPs effectiveness, relative to the standard intervention alone. To this end, three studies were conducted with intimate partner violence offender samples, participating in a randomized clinical trial. Participants were randomly assigned to the control condition (standard BIP), or to the experimental condition (BIP+IMP). Final outcomes (i.e., official recidivism, physical and psychological violence, and recidivism risk) and proximal outcomes (i.e., treatment compliance -dropout and intervention dose, stage of change, emotion-decoding abilities, empathy and therapeutic alliance) were analysed. Participants in the experimental condition, at the end of the intervention, had lower levels of recidivism risk and self-reported physical violence, higher intervention dose, and were at higher stages of change at the end of the intervention program. They also were more accurate in decoding emotional facial signals and presented better cognitive empathy (i.e., perspective taking). Finally, participants in standard plus motivational condition established higher therapeutic alliance. Our results highlight the relevance of motivational strategies to increase the effectiveness in BIPs.