title: Domestic violence assessment procedures among couple therapists.
abstract: Guidelines for addressing domestic violence (DV) in couple therapy have been published, but reports of whether therapists routinely follow these suggestions are few. A national survey of 620 couple therapists randomly selected from American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy members was conducted in 2000 to assess therapists' strategies for assessing DV and selecting a treatment modality when violence is discovered. Less than 4% of respondents indicated consistently following key published guidelines for DV screening (universal screening using separate interviews and questionnaires). A minority indicated that they consider the victim's safety as a factor in treatment modality selection. DV may be under-identified by couple therapists and therapists may be using conjoint therapy with couples for whom such therapy is contraindicated because of relationship violence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. rschacht@u.washington.edu
authors.forename: Rebecca L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Schacht
authors.forename: Sona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dimidjian
authors.forename: William H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: George
authors.forename: Sara B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Berns
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D019546:Couples Therapy / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D011361:Professional Competence / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology