ANN ARBOR—In treating men who batter their wives or girlfriends, ” one size may not fit all,” according to a University of Michigan study.

” Almost all programs for men who batter are very structured and focus on recent events,” says Daniel G. Saunders, U-M associate professor of social work. ” They don’t usually take into account abusers who may need a different approach.”

In his study of 136 men who completed treatment, Saunders found that structured psychoeducational groups, in general, were no more effective than psychotherapy groups. The structured groups provided skills training and attempted to change attitudes about men’s and women’s roles; the unstructured groups dealt with relationships in the groups and healing childhood traumas, especially witnessing and experiencing violence in the home.

However, Saunders says, each approach was more successful for different types of abusers. For example, psychoeducational groups lowered rates of violence the most for men who were anti- social and generally violent, while less-structured psychotherapy groups decreased rates of violence the most for men who showed the most dependency on others.

When the fit between treatment type and abuser type was optimal, he says, the rates of repeated violence were as low as 31 percent; when they were not optimal, the rates of repeated violence were more than 50 percent.

Reports of the men’s behavior an average of two years after treatment came from the men’s wives or girlfriends or arrest records. The women also reported their levels of fear and the non-violent behaviors of their partners. Again, there were no differences in the treatments.

About three-fourths of the men in each of the two groups had been mandated into treatment by the criminal justice system. The treatments lasted five months and followed orientation sessions and extensive evaluations. Prior to treatment, the men in the two groups did not differ in the number of times arrested or in their attitudes or personality.

Saunders cautions that since this is the first study of its kind, the results need to be repeated before firm conclusions can be made.

The study was supported by the Centers for Disease Control Prevention and Control) and was presented at a recent conference at the National Institutes of Health. It will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Violence and Victims.