Efficacy of a Christian Intervention to Promote Posttraumatic Growth in Women Recovering from Intimate Partner Violence

This quantitative pretest-posttest design evaluated a biblically based personal development program (PDP) for promoting PTG in Christian women who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV). A convenience sample (N = 7) of volunteers included women within a large county in the Southeastern United States. Participants were recruited through numerous large and small Southern Baptist churches. Qualifications included being female, at least 19 years old, and having experienced IPV but not within the last 12 months, to reduce the possibility of reinjury by rumination. Participants completed pretest assessments, attended the 3-hour personal development program, and completed a posttest assessment. Data was collected using a research website. The study sought to know if the PDP improved PTG in Christian women who have suffered IPV. A paired samples t test revealed a statistically significant increase in four of the five subscales of PTG. The study also aimed to determine if there was a predictive linear relationship between the time since the last occurrence of IPV, the severity of IPV, and the change in the total and subscale scores of the PTG. However, the multivariate regression analysis was inconclusive due to the sample size. Recommendations were made to evaluate other spiritual/religious interventions, study PTG among women of multicultural backgrounds, incorporate mixed methods to include participants’ experiences and future intentions for PTG, conduct PDP using web-related venues for live video events or upload prerecorded sessions to be viewed when convenient, and to conduct the PDP over four or more weeks to allow more time for cognitive processing before completing the posttest PTGI