MISC-IPV: a Community-Based Intervention for Children Traumatized by Intimate Partner Violence

The investigators propose that the adverse effects of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) trauma on children can be interrupted through an intervention that enhances maternal caregiving capacity delivered by paraprofessional caseworkers. The objective of this application is to adapt an established caregiver intervention program, Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers (MISC), for the IPV context (thereafter named MISC-IPV). Guided by an evidence-based framework for adapting caregiver-child training programs, the investigators take a three-phase approach (Adapt, Process Evaluation, Outcome/Mediator Evaluation) with the central hypothesis that acceptability and feasibility of MISC-IPV will be demonstrated and that MISC-IPV will show positive preliminary outcomes through the mechanism of enhanced maternal caregiving. In acknowledgement of significant health disparities faced by IPV-affected African American women, the investigators will conduct our research with African American women and their children. Successful completion of the project will result in a scalable community-based approach to IPV exposure that may provide a model for future integration of child-focused work into existing woman-focused IPV programs.

Mother inclusion criteria:

• Enrolled in Harris County Domestic Violence rehousing program
• Fluency in English

Mother exclusion criteria:

• Active suicidality
• Intellectual disability
• Active psychotic disorder

Child inclusion criteria:

• Exposure to domestic violence
• 7-11 years old in a family

Child exclusion criteria:

• Intelligence quotient below 75,
• Active psychosis
• Severe autism
• Below age 7 or above age 11