Identifying and Responding to Male Partner Violence

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DESCRIPTION (provided by investigator): Dr. Karin Rhodes, an Emergency Medicine physician, seeks a Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award from NIMH to create a systematic investigation of emergency department response to men involved in intimate partner violence. Most interventions in a health care setting address the victim's (generally women) behavior. This does not take into account the behavior of the perpetrators (generally men). Current assumptions and hypotheses about men involved in violent relationships are based on data from court-mandated batterers' treatment programs, not community health care settings where a broader range of violent behaviors might present and where perpetrators might be more amenable to interventions. Dr. Rhodes proposes to extend the computer screening and data collection methodologies she is currently using to identify at-risk women to assess if it is possible to identify the male perpetrators and/or male victims. (Dr. Rhodes' preliminary data suggests that screening men for victimization may also identify perpetrators). The proposed research plan includes a randomized controlled trial to assess the effect of a self-administered computer program that includes a screen for partner violence on emergency department communication outcomes. Secondary projects seek to validate the screen and conduct structured psychiatric interviews for DSM Axis I and II diagnoses, comparing men who screen positive to men who screen negative for personality traits, psychiatric co-morbidities, and abuse histories. The goal of the exploratory work is to evaluate whether any of the frameworks classifying perpetrators of partner violence apply to men screened in two socio-economically diverse ED settings. This information is crucial if effective interventions are to be designed and tested in this difficult to study population. As a former RWJ Clinical Scholar, Dr. Rhodes is in the position to bring to bear rigorous health services research skills on an extraordinarily complex problem. In so doing, she will gain the skills to commence a career as a clinical scientist whose clinical and research interests mutually inform one another.