The Effectiveness of Empowerment Program on Increasing Self-Esteem, Learned Resourcefulness, and Coping Ways in Women Exposed to Domestic Violence

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of empowerment program on increasing self-esteem, learned resourcefulness, and coping ways in women exposed to domestic violence. This experimental study was conducted between October 2012 and June 2014 in the obstetrics and gynaecology departments of the Giresun Maternity Hospital, and at the Family Counseling Center (FCC) in Turkey. Sixty women who agreed to participate in the study were randomly assigned into two groups. Data were collected by the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI), The Rosenbaum's Learned Resourcefulness Scale (RLRS), and the Ways of Coping Inventory (WCI). The assessment of the women before and after the empowerment program showed that women in the intervention group showed significant improvements in the SEI, RLRS, and WCI scores compared with controls. These results suggest that the empowerment program is an effective practice for increasing the levels of self-esteem, learned resourcefulness, and coping ways of women exposed to domestic violence.

Acknowledgments

The study is based on the author's doctoral dissertation. The authors would like to thank all study participants for participating in the study. Also the authors thank M. Önder Temel, Yeliz Tiryaki Göksu, Sevil Özdemir for their contribution in preparing the environment where the sessions were held and the conduct of research, and Sevilay Karahan for statistical analysis of the data.