Cris M Sullivan

Michigan State University | MSU

Purpose This is the first study to longitudinally examine the mental health and well-being impacts on survivors when their abusive partners and ex-partners use their children as an abuse tactic against them. Methods The sample included two hundred seventy-seven homeless or unstably housed survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). All were moth...

Despite increasing attention to the importance of examining factors that impact housing instability and homelessness, the field lacks a validated scale of housing instability. The current study examined the reliability and validity of a seven-item scale that measures housing instability. Data were taken from a larger study which implemented the Dom...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a widespread and devastating phenomenon resulting in a myriad of long-term consequences for survivors and their children. IPV victimization not only has negative health and economic consequences, it has also been linked to homelessness and housing instability. In response, the Domestic Violence Housing First (DVHF...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a leading cause of homelessness, yet little evidence exists about effective strategies to assist IPV survivors as they work to avoid homelessness while freeing themselves from abuse. An ongoing demonstration evaluation is examining if and how one promising model assists IPV survivors in obtaining safe and stable h...

Using data from an ongoing longitudinal study, we examined the impact of the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders on a racially diverse population of unstably housed domestic violence (DV) survivors over time. Specifically, we examined survivors' safety, housing stability, and mental health before, during, and after the onset of COVID-19, and how demograph...

Although prior research has established that intimate partner violence (IPV) often leads to increased depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), little is known about how often abusive partners and ex-partners use survivors’ children as an abuse tactic, nor whether this form of IPV also is detrimental to survivors’ mental health...

Survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) seek services from domestic violence (DV) programs for a multitude of reasons. One critical need for many survivors, that has often been overlooked when considering the services DV programs provide, is stable housing. DV programs typically offer safety planning, counseling, advocacy, support groups, and...

Housing instability is a critical concern in the United States, and domestic violence (DV) survivors are a group at high risk for experiencing housing instability or of becoming unhoused. Prior research has also identified having a criminal record (CR) as being a major barrier to obtaining stable housing, and this is truer for Black and Latinx peop...

Domestic violence (DV) is a leading cause of homelessness for women, yet many DV agencies are just beginning to focus on helping clients stabilize their housing situations. The purpose of this study was to better understand the contexts and service needs of unstably housed and homeless DV survivors, to promote more efficient and successful service...

Child maltreatment is a major public health issue in the United States. In the federal fiscal year 2017, approximately 7.5 million children were referred to child welfare services (CSW) in the nation. Developmental, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive problems are prevalent among children referred to CWS. For those in foster care, temporary or per...

Rigorously evaluating community‐based interventions for multiply marginalized populations is fraught with challenges under the best of circumstances. This manuscript describes the methodology chosen to evaluate an innovative model designed to help survivors of intimate partner violence obtain safe and stable housing. We justify the choice of evalua...

The choice of research design affects not only internal and external validity but ecological validity as well. Ecological validity refers to the extent to which data are based in and relevant to real-world settings. One way for researchers to maximize the likelihood of achieving ecological validity is to design studies with community partners that...

Survivors of intimate partner violence arrive at the doors of domestic violence (DV) programs with a wide variety of needs, including long-term safety and healing, housing, economic stability, health and well-being, and community connection. Although some DV programs offer holistic approaches to survivors, many focus the vast majority of their atte...

There is strong evidence of the association between being a survivor of domestic violence (DV) and the risk of acquiring HIV. Unfortunately, DV advocates often fail to adequately address this risk. Data from an online survey with a national convenience sample of 677 DV advocates from throughout the United States and territories were used to examine...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is one of the most common and devastating forms of violence occurring worldwide. Being victimized by an intimate partner or ex-partner can lead to numerous negative consequences for survivors and their children, including physical and mental health problems as well as housing instability and financial devastation. IP...

Transitional Housing (TH) programs were developed for domestic violence (DV) survivors in order to provide the time, financial assistance, and supports needed for survivors to achieve long-term safety and housing stability. Previous research indicates TH may be effective for homeless families, but there is a paucity of evidence related to DV surviv...

Many abusers engage in violent behaviors to systematically remove power from and maintain control over their intimate partners. Domestic violence crisis housing organizations aim to increase safety and help survivors regain their power. Yet, little is known about how these settings accomplish this aim. This study drew on empowerment and empowering...

An estimated 15.5 million American children are exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) every year. Such exposure negatively impacts children’s health, development and academic performance and may also be accompanied by housing instability or homelessness. Children growing up with periods of homelessness or housing instability are at risk for ma...

Domestic violence (DV) victim service programs have been increasingly expected by legislators and funders to demonstrate that they are making a significant difference in the lives of those using their services. Alongside this expectation, they are being asked to describe the Theory of Change guiding how they believe their practices lead to positive...

In the absence of ongoing involvement in the communities that are the subjects of research, even well-intentioned researchers can develop questions that are not relevant to community needs, employ methods that hurt community members, or disseminate findings in ways that are inaccessible to those most affected. Recognizing these harms, a growing num...

The purpose of community-based domestic violence crisis housing programs (e.g., shelters) is to provide a safe setting that promotes empowerment for survivors of intimate partner violence. For staff to reach this aim, the program must have formal structures and processes in place to support such efforts. This study explored how low-barrier and volu...

Survivors of intimate partner violence have myriad reasons why they turn to domestic violence shelter programs. While all are seeking immediate safety and feel a pressing need to leave their homes to obtain it, safety is rarely the only issue survivors are grappling with upon shelter entry. Other concerns are particular to each person’s history and...

Domestic violence shelters have historically gone beyond providing emergency residential space for survivors by assisting in obtaining future housing, employment, health care, child care, or legal services. Domestic violence shelters are expected to operate within an empowerment philosophy, with an understanding that survivors are self-determining,...

Programs for domestic violence (DV) victims and their families have grown exponentially over the last four decades. The evidence demonstrating the extent of their effectiveness, however, often has been criticized as stemming from studies lacking scientific rigor. A core reason for this critique is the widespread belief that credible evidence can de...

Domestic violence is a potentially traumatizing experience that has devastating psychological and physical consequences. In response, domestic violence shelter programs have focused increasing attention on helping adult and child survivors understand and heal from this trauma. What have come to be called trauma-informed practices include (a) reflec...

The Housing First model has been shown to be a highly effective approach to achieving permanent housing for chronically homeless individuals with serious mental illness and chemical dependency. There are numerous components of the model that lend themselves toward achieving similar goals for homeless domestic violence (DV) survivors and their child...

Survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) have a variety of reasons for turning to domestic violence shelter programs. Some are seeking temporary respite and immediate safety while others are seeking longer term assistance to heal from their trauma and begin new lives. In line with these differing needs, some survivors only stay in shelter for a...

Reproductive coercion (RC) is a form of intimate partner violence (IPV) that continues to lack adequate attention by both researchers and practitioners. RC is defined as “male partners’ attempts to promote pregnancy in their female partners through verbal pressure and threats to become pregnant (pregnancy coercion), direct interference with contrac...

Objective: There is a dearth of empirical studies aimed at examining the impact of differential cultural adaptation of evidence-based clinical and prevention interventions. This prevention study consisted of a randomized controlled trial aimed at comparing the impact of 2 differentially culturally adapted versions of the evidence-based parenting i...

Many practitioners who work with survivors of domestic violence (DV) attempt to raise survivors' consciousness about DV dynamics as well as about oppression they may encounter from the systems with which they interact. Such critical consciousness raising is one component of the “empowering practices” that many DV advocates aim to implement. Despite...

The complex interrelationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization and housing instability has been well established. Being the victim of IPV is a leading cause of homelessness for women, and once someone is homeless, their lives often spiral downward quickly. While some IPV survivors require extensive and possibly long-term assist...

The Community Advocacy Project is an evidence-based practice that has been shown to lead to numerous positive changes in the lives of intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors. Prior research conducted in the Midwest United States, and with primarily African American and Anglo American survivors, has shown that this short-term, community-based advo...

Spurred by research demonstrating the pervasiveness and impact of trauma, domestic violence programs are increasingly adopting a trauma-informed approach. In the absence of measurement tools, however, they are unable to determine whether indeed clients experience their practices as trauma-informed. The aim of this study was to create and validate a...

Spurred by research demonstrating the pervasiveness and impact of trauma, domestic violence programs are increasingly adopting a trauma‐informed approach. In the absence of measurement tools, however, they are unable to determine whether indeed clients experience their practices as trauma‐informed. The aim of this study was to create and validate a...

Homelessness and housing instability frequently accompany intimate partner violence and can negatively impact health and functioning. When children are exposed to homelessness or housing instability their ability to develop and function is compromised. The purpose of this study is to examine the differential impact of homelessness and unstable hous...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious and widespread form of gender-based violence that disproportionately affects women. It is well established that IPV victimization contributes to depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and that many partner-abusive men continue to perpetuate abuse even after their relationship with the victi...

Over the last 4 decades, domestic violence (DV) programs—both residential and nonresidential—have sprung up in communities across the country with the aim of helping survivors become safe. These programs place strong emphasis on the relationship between the advocate and survivor as critical to becoming safer and healing from the trauma of abuse. Ye...

Family therapists have a unique opportunity to contribute toward the reduction of widespread mental health disparities impacting diverse populations by developing applied lines of research focused on cultural adaptation. For example, although evidence-based prevention parent training (PT) interventions have been found to be efficacious with various...

Exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) has negative consequences for children's well-being and behavior. Much of the research on parenting in the context of IPV has focused on whether and how IPV victimization may negatively shape maternal parenting, and how parenting may in turn negatively influence child behavior, resulting in a deficit mode...

Due to an error in the production process, there were errors in the sixth sentence of the abstract. The corrected sentence should read: When parenting practices were examined individually as mediators of the relationship between IPV and child behavior over time, one type of parenting was significant, such that higher IPV led to higher authoritative...

We read Barsky’s Letter to the Editor thoroughly, and would like to respond with information that will provide clarity to his questions. Barsky’s concerns relate to his statement: “…it is not clear that the researchers were actually studying a mediation process.” First, we specified in the article title that the family court official under study wa...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has detrimental consequences for women’s mental health. To effectively intervene, it is essential to understand the process through which IPV influ- ences women’s mental health. The current study used data from 5 waves of the Women’s Employment Study, a prospective study of single mothers receiving Temporary Assis- t...

Racial microaggressions are often unintentional and subtle forms of racism that manifest in interpersonal communications, behaviors, or environments. The purpose of this study was to explore the presence of racial microaggressions within domestic violence shelters and to understand how women respond to them. Using a phenomenological approach to dat...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has detrimental consequences for women's mental health. To effectively intervene, it is essential to understand the process through which IPV influences women's mental health. The current study used data from 5 waves of the Women's Employment Study, a prospective study of single mothers receiving Temporary Assistance...

Continued abuse of themselves and their children is a concern for many mothers leaving intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrating husbands. This research examines women's responses to abuse committed by ex-husbands with whom they had undergone custody disputes. In-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with 19 mothers who had divorced IPV-p...

Once an intervention has been found to be effective, it is important to examine the processes and factors within the program that led to its success. The current study examined survivors’ reflections on the Community Advocacy Project, an empirically supported intervention for women with abusive partners. The study examined the service delivery proc...

This study sought to extend our understanding of the mechanisms by which intimate partner violence (IPV) harms women economically. We examined the mediating role of job instability on the IPV-economic well-being relationship among 503 welfare recipients. IPV had significant negative effects on women's job stability and economic well-being. Job stab...

Ethnic identity, the extent to which one defines one’s self as a member of a particular ethnic group, has been found to be an important predictor of African American adolescents’ psychological and behavioral well-being. This study experimentally examined the effects of a school-based emancipatory intervention on the ethnic identity of African Ameri...

Family court often assists divorcing parties in establishing custody arrangements. Mediation is commonly used for custody negotiation; however, its applicability for cases involving intimate partner abuse (IPA) is debated. This study was designed to gain an in-depth understanding of abused mothers’ court mediation experiences and how those experien...

This study adds to research on family court's response to custody in the context of intimate partner abuse (IPA). Mediation is often used to assist family court with custody negotiation; however, debate exists in the field regarding its use when IPA exists. The following study examines experiences with court mediation among a sample of victimized m...

Definitions vary on what constitutes sexual and/or physical abuse, and scholars have debated on which methods might yield the most accurate response rates for capturing this sensitive information. Although some studies suggest respondents prefer methods that provide anonymity, previous studies have not utilized high-risk or stigmatized populations....

Latinos constitute the largest ethnic minority group in the United States. However, the cultural adaptation and dissemination of evidence-based parenting interventions among Latino populations continues to be scarce despite extensive research that demonstrates the long-term positive effects of these interventions. The purpose of this article is thr...

As empirical evidence has demonstrated the pervasiveness of sexual assault and intimate partner violence in the lives of women, and the links to poor mental health outcomes, attention has turned to examining how women seek and access formal help. We present a conceptual model that addresses prior limitations and makes three key contributions: It fo...

Background/Purpose: Perpetrators of intimate partner violence often engage in post-separation violence after the relationship formally ends. Compounding this, when victims share children in common with perpetrators, court-ordered custody arrangements may leave women unable to completely cut ties with perpetratorstheir children's fathers. This resea...

More and more funders of non-profit organizations are mandating that grantees engage in outcome evaluation. Given that this mandate is rarely accompanied by additional funding to devote to such efforts, as well as the limited skills many staff have in conducting outcome evaluation, this has been a significant hardship for human service programs. Do...

Background: Little is known about intimate partner violence (IPV) and depression among low income, urban African American and Hispanic adolescent females. Method: Interviews with 102 urban African American and Hispanic adolescent females examined physical abuse, emotional/verbal abuse, and threats, and their unique and combined associations with de...

Longitudinal research designs are relatively rare in the academic literature on rape and sexual assault despite their tremendous methodological rigor and scientific utility. In the interest of promoting wider use of such methods, we conducted a methodological review of projects that have used prospective longitudinal designs to study the occurrence...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive social problem impacting the psychological well-being of millions of US women annually. The extant literature draws our attention to the devastating mental health effects of IPV, but largely overlooks how ecological factors may further explain survivors' well-being. This study examined how neighborhood...

This study examined the impact of resource constraints on the psychological well-being of survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV), testing whether resource constraints is one mechanism that partially mediates the relationship between IPV and women's well-being. Although within-woman changes in resource constraints did not mediate the relations...

This longitudinal study used multilevel modeling to examine the relationships between witnessing intimate partner violence (IPV), community and school violence exposure (CSVE), family social support, gender, and depression over 2 years within a sample of 100 school-aged children. We found significant between-child differences in both the initial le...

Background and Purpose: For many children, witnessing intimate partner violence (IPV) may be ongoing, and co-occur with other forms of victimization such as community violence exposure. Witnessing IPV and community violence have both been linked to children's depression, with some gender differences found. Though family social support has been show...

Women's experiences of warfare and postwar recovery are qualitatively different from those of men. However, to date, the processes whereby women recover from the gendered impacts of war have not been sufficiently explored. In order to address this gap in the literature and to inform policies and services aimed at women recovering from warfare, a qu...

This article explores the roles of social (informal) and institutional (formal) support in the lives of 158 women whose intimate partner abuse (IPA) cases reached the courts in three jurisdictions in the United States.Women were asked who knew about the IPA and their levels of supportiveness. Data analysis includes comparisons across the women in t...

Intimate partner violence is a serious and pervasive social problem with deleterious consequences for survivors' well-being. The current study involved interviewing 160 survivors 6 times over 2 years to examine the role of social support in explaining or buffering these negative psychological consequences. The authors examined both between- and wit...

Refugee women’s experiences and needs are qualitatively different from those of men. However, women’s experiences have long been overlooked in favor of a male-centered paradigm that governs the response to survivors of warfare. To close this gap in science and practice, a needs assessment was conducted with 31 refugee women. The findings revealed t...

This 2-year longitudinal study investigated the relations between community and school violence exposure, witnessing intimate partner violence (IPV), family social support, and anxiety, within a sample of 100 school-age children (39% female, M age = 9.90 years). Using multilevel modeling, we found heterogeneity across children in terms of their ini...

There is increasing pressure on domestic violence victim service programs worldwide to demonstrate the impact of their work on those using their services. Many workers within such programs are also interested in understanding more about what is and is not working well for service users. The current project was a multi‐country collaboration to desig...

This study explored battered mothers' perceptions of their interactions with child protectiv services (CPS) workers to increase understanding about how child welfare workers and pol cies can have negative as well as positive impacts on women's and children's lives. Th research was guided by two feminist frameworks: structured action theory and soci...

Economic abuse is part of the pattern of behaviors used by batterers to maintain power and control over their partners. However, no measure of economic abuse exists. This study describes the development of the Scale of Economic Abuse, which was designed to fill this gap. Interviews were conducted with 103 survivors of domestic abuse, each of whom r...

This study examined the association between sexual relationship power, intimate partner violence, and condom use among African American and Hispanic urban girls. In this sample of 56 sexually active girls, 50% did not use condoms consistently and therefore were at higher risk for acquiring HIV or sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Teens who expe...

Although researchers have found that survivors of intimate partner violence seek support from a multitude of sources, ranging from professionals to informal support networks, little is known about the extent to which community members reach out to help survivors. This study explored the type of support provided to survivors and various factors that...

To examine the associations between past intimate partner abuse experienced during adolescence (verbal and physical), recent intimate partner abuse (verbal, physical, and sexual), and HIV risk (as indicated by lack of condom use) for sexually active young adult women in relationships with male partners. Secondary data analysis of waves II and III o...

While research has found that millions of children in the United States are exposed to their mothers being battered, and that many are themselves abused as well, little is known about the ways in which children are used by abusers to manipulate or harm their mothers. Anecdotal evidence suggests that perpetrators use children in a variety of ways to...

This chapter focuses on the criteria that should be considered when judging the success of efforts in working on parenting with men who batter. Topics discussed include what a parenting program should accomplish, ingredients of a successful evaluation, recruiting men who batter to participate in the evaluation, safely involving survivors and their...

This study examined how being abused by a current partner versus an ex-partner might affect psychological well-being and social support in a community sample of 398 women, half of whom had experienced abuse in the past 6 months. The impact of emotional and physical abuse was influenced by partner status, with emotional abuse being more detrimental...

This study examined the levels of depression reported by women who had used a domestic violence shelter. Depressive symptoms were assessed three times: immediately after shelter exit, 10 weeks thereafter, and 6 months later. Whereas 83% of the women reported at least mild depression on the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) scale...

While a small number of past studies have examined either situational, relational, or systems-level factors that influence battered women's use of either the police, prosecutorial, or court systems, no study to date has examined how these factors each influence women's intentions to reuse these systems. To address this gap, in-person interviews wer...

Women with abusive partners utilize a variety of coping strategies to deal with and heal from the violence and sense of betrayal they have experienced. For many women, their trust in a higher power and the support they receive from their faith community is integral to their healing. Of 151 women interviewed for this study, the majority (97%) noted...

This study experimentally examined the effect of a school-based emancipatory intervention on the psychological and behavioral well-being of African American adolescents. Sixty-five eighth graders in an inner-city, predominantly Black school were randomly assigned to either receive the experimental intervention or a regular Life Skills course (the c...

This chapter provides an overview of the most common types of interventions being provided in the United States as well as discuss the empirical evidence, if available, supporting these efforts. The majority of interventions that are currently in place to address intimate partner violence fall into four broad categories: community-based programs to...

This report provides the most thorough profile to date of supervised visitation and exchange programs in the United States, including information on types of services, common barriers to service, and the number of individuals being seen in these programs who experienced several forms of violence and abuse. Major findings include: a) dangerousness a...