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Background Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious public health issue that consists of physical, sexual, and psychological violence perpetrated by a current or former partner. Informal supporters (e.g., family and friends) of survivors are more often witness to IPV or are the first people a survivor will disclose abuse to and are more able to provide consistent ongoing support than professional services. Therefore, greater understanding of informal supporters is warranted to aid in reducing the risks experienced by survivors. This systematic review aimed to: (1) identify factors associated with either an increase or decrease in helping behaviour toward a survivor, (2), identify the most effective self-care strategies employed by informal supporters, and (3) consider the current theoretical approaches used to understand informal supporters help-giving behavioural intention. Methods A systematic literature search was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines. The search included English language articles published between 2005 and 2021 in the databases Psych Articles, Scopus, Proquest Social Services Abstracts, and Ebscohost. Studies were included if the primary research aims explored the motivators and inhibitors of helping intention or self-care strategies of adult social network members of adult IPV survivors. Two reviewers independently screened all identified articles for inclusion suitability. Results One hundred and twenty articles were subjected to full text screening resulting in 31 articles being identified as meeting inclusion criteria. Synthesis of the findings identified the following three key areas associated with help-giving behavioural intentions: normative factors, individual factors, and situational factors. There were no articles identified that considered self-care of informal supporters. Of the 31 articles, 22 had a theoretical underpinning. None of the utilised theories explained all three of the identified factors of help-giving behavioural intention. Conclusion These results are integrated into a proposed Intimate Partner Violence Model of Informal Supporter Readiness (IPV-MISR), incorporating the identified factors associated with help-giving behavioural intention. This model provides a framework for conceptualising the readiness of an informal supporter to provide adequate support to IPV survivors. The model extends existing theoretical standpoints and has utility in both practice and research.

Competency-based professional psychology training is now common practice in many countries. An implication of competency-based training is the need to assess practitioner competence across multiple domains of practice; however, standardized measures of competence are limited. In Australia, currently there is no standardized, quantitative measure of professional competencies at registered psychologist level. The absence of a measure has implications for education, training, practice, and research in professional psychology. To address this gap, this article provides a conceptual overview of the utility and development of the Competencies of Professional Psychology Rating scales (COPPR), including the process of initial pre-test, pilot, and review. This developmental process resulted in the thematic identification of competencies within 11 domains of practice, and the creation of both COPPR-Self report and COPPR-Observer report versions. The pre-test provided content validity for the COPPR, and the initial results of the pilot test suggest strong convergent and divergent validity. The measure differentiated between novice and experienced practitioners, suggesting the scale is appropriate for use across career stages. The COPPR scales address the need for a standardized and quantitative measure across multiple domains of practice at registered psychologist level in Australia. The COPPR scales are intended to have utility across professional psychology student and supervisee performance evaluation, self-reflection for psychologists in practice, educational evaluation at professional psychology level, and various research contexts.

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