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Training needs assessment of workers providing services to battered women

University of British Columbia

The purpose of this study was to determine the training needs of workers who provide services to battered women and the characteristics of workers who would be willing to train trainers to educate other workers. The data were collected by two mail-out questionnaires returned by 118 frontline workers and 53 administrators from agencies providing services to battered women in seven communities in British Columbia. Two focus groups were conducted to examine the training needs of special groups, one with native workers in the northeastern region of the province, and one with workers from other cultural minorities in the Lower Mainland. Frontline workers who responded to the questionnaire reported how much training they had received and how competent they felt about their knowledge and skills related to working with battered women. Questions on sex role attitudes and the Wife-beating is Justified Scale (Saunders, Lynch, Grayson, & Linz, 1987) were included to measure workers' attitudes toward women and battering. A Pearson-product moment correlation found that levels of competence regarding knowledge and skills were positively correlated with the number of hours of training received (r=.80, p<.01, and r=.67, p<.01, respectively) and with sex role attitudes (r=.42, p<.01, and r=.52 r R<-01, respectively). Areas in which further training is needed, as indicated by lower levels of training and competence among frontline workers, included legal issues, suicide, cross-cultural awareness, dating violence, forced sex in marriage, immigration, and lesbian battering. The focus group data supported the need for cultural-sensitivity training. Workers who were willing to be trained as trainers reported having fewer years of experience working with battered women, but more training and competence in legal issues and more competence in planning and leading support groups than non-trainers. They were also more likely to have experienced abuse. The administrators provided background information about their agencies, and indicated how much training on battering they had provided for workers and whether they were willing to sponsor further training. Both workers and administrators acknowledged the need for more training on battering and indicated that, to be accessible to the majority of workers providing services to battered women in the province, training programs should be delivered locally.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2008-09-10

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/1833

Counselling Psychology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace