Long-term effects of the Pregnant Moms' Empowerment Program (PMEP) on intimate partner violence revictimization,...

The present study examined effects of the Pregnant Moms' Empowerment Program (PMEP) 4 years following program completion. It was hypothesized that women who participated in PMEP during pregnancy would experience less intimate partner violence revictimization and fewer depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms as compared to women in the no-treatment control condition. Further, it was expected that the children women were pregnant with when they participated in PMEP, who are now preschool-aged, would exhibit fewer internalizing and externalizing problems as compared to children of women in the control condition.

Participants were 78 women (56.9% of the original sample) assigned to the PMEP intervention (n = 46) or control condition (n = 32) during pregnancy. Outcomes assessed were intimate partner violence (Revised Conflict Tactics Scales), depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale), posttraumatic stress symptoms (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-5), and children's internalizing and externalizing problems (Child Behavior Checklist).

Regression models controlling for baseline levels of each dependent variable indicated that 4 years posttreatment, women assigned to the PMEP condition, as compared to women in the control condition, reported significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms. Poisson regression analyses indicated that women who received PMEP reported significantly fewer intimate partner violence experiences than women in the control condition. Children of women who participated in PMEP exhibited significantly fewer externalizing problems than children of women in the control condition.

Findings show that participating in PMEP resulted in benefits not only for women who received the treatment but also for their children 4 years following the intervention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).