Resumen de Programas de intervención con hombres penados por violencia de género: el enfoque motivacional como aproximación para mejorar su eficacia
Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women is a widespread public health problem with serious consequences on victims’ physical and psychological health, their children, and the wider society. IPV offender intervention programs are one of the main treatment approaches aimed at preventing further violence. Meta-analyses focused on the effectiveness of IPV offender intervention programs have shown small effect sizes. Consequently, new approaches have been proposed as a way to increase their effectiveness, among which motivational strategies stand out. The aim of the present doctoral thesis was to analyze the effect of the inclusion of motivational strategies on the effectiveness of IPV intervention programs, both in proximal outcomes (i.e, working alliance and pro-therapeutic behavior) and in final outcomes (i.e., reduction of recidivism, intervention dose, and dropout). To this end, three studies were carried out. The first study evaluated the effectiveness of motivational strategies in reducing physical and psychological violence, dropout, intervention dose and recidivism by means of a systematic review with meta-analysis of the existing randomized controlled trials in the literature. The second study analyzed the psychometric properties of an observational scale of working alliance, considering its relationships with other variables (i.e, pro-therapeutic behaviors) with a sample of IPV offenders, as a previous step for the third study. The third study compared the effects of an intervention with motivational strategies versus an intervention without such strategies on the working alliance and pro-therapeutic behaviors of IPV offenders, using the scale validated in the second study, among other instruments. Taking together, the results of this doctoral thesis highlight the benefits of including motivational strategies in IPV offender programs in order to improve the adherence to the intervention, the reduction of dropout, and key processes of the intervention such as working alliance and pro-therapeutic behaviors. Specifically, the inclusion of motivational strategies throughout the intervention program could favor the stabilization of these benefits in the long term as opposed to the sporadic use of these strategies. Compared to a more coercive approach, motivational strategies may help batterers overcome their ambivalence towards change by helping them find their own reasons for change and facilitating the achievement of their goals, and ultimately increasing the effectiveness of IPV offender programs. These findings go beyond previous research in this field, and could favor the optimizations of intervention protocols in this population.
