Evaluation of the Impact of the Empowerment Program on Sheltered Battered Women

The Effect of Mindfulness Based Empowerment Program on Self-Compassion, Self-Esteem and Ways of Coping With Stress of Women Experienced Violence: A Randomized-Controlled Study

This study aims to increase the level of self-compassion, improve their self-esteem and cope with stress so that women who are exposed to violence can fight violence more effectively, protect their physical and mental health, find the strength they need to direct their lives, and do all these through self-awareness, compassion and kindness. It is aimed to gain coping skills. For this purpose, a mindfulness-based strengthening program will be implemented.

When the statistics on violence against women in the world are analyzed, it is seen that 16-25% of women are physically abused by their husbands, boyfriends or fiancees, and one out of every five women is exposed to this type of violence in their own home. It has been concluded that the approaches applied in intervention studies for women exposed to violence affect women's mental health positively, increase their self-esteem, improve their coping, problem-solving and decision-making skills, reduce their anger and stress levels, and increase their self-efficacy. In addition, it has been determined that mindfulness-based interventions applied to women who have been subjected to violence strengthen awareness and self-compassion, improve sense of belonging, compassion and problem-solving skills, reduce self-blame, depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, increase psychological well-being, and reduce PTSD symptoms. With the continuation of exposure to violence, women are insufficient to change their feelings and lives in a positive way, they are affected by the negative and judgmental attitudes of their environment, they struggle with all the negative effects of violence throughout their lives, they experience physical and mental disorders due to violence, and therefore they resort to harmful coping methods. In this sense, the aim of the study is to determine the effect of mindfulness-based empowerment program on self-compassion, self-esteem and ways of coping with stress in women exposed to violence.

The hypotheses of this study:

In the mindfulness-based empowerment program applied to women who have been subjected to violence, H0-1: There is no difference between the intervention group and the control group in terms of self-compassion.

H0-2: There is no difference between the intervention group and the control group in terms of self-esteem.

H0-3: There is no difference between the intervention group and the control group in terms of coping styles with stress.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Women who have been exposed to at least one of the types of violence,
• Women who can read, write and understand Turkish will be included in the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Women with severe mental retardation,
• Women with psychotic symptoms and impaired ability to assess reality,
• Women who do not have insight due to psychiatric disorder,
• Women whose cognitive functionality is impaired,
• Women with any physical limitations will not be included in the study.