Workers’ Attitudes about Domestic Violence (DV): Does Personal Experience with DV Matter?

ABSTRACT

This study examined how workers’ personal experience with domestic violence (DV) and their training and education impact their attitudes and beliefs about DV. Understanding workers’ attitudes is necessary to ensure an effective and non-judgmental service response. A statewide survey of child welfare and DV organization workers was analyzed using linear regression to predict workers’ victim blaming attitudes (N = 846). Gender, type of education, recognizing the impact of DV in one’s life, and DV training are all significantly associated with workers’ attitudes toward survivors. Those working with survivors should be provided with the training necessary to recognize the pervasive nature of DV.

KEYWORDS:

• Domestic violence
• worker
• attitudes
• training

Acknowledgments

This research would not have been possible without funding from the Department of Children and Families, State of New Jersey. Any opinions and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the State of New Jersey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Workers here refers to either child protection workers or DV advocates. Information drawn from research articles that focus on only one type of worker are identified as such.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the State of New Jersey Department of Children and Families [16COZM].