Aresearcher is interested in examining the status of domestic violence victims after counseling. to carry out this study, she plans to recruit a sample of domestic violence victims from the local shelter and follow them for 6 months to see if they leave their violent partner. she plans to select a comparison group of women outpatients from the local community mental health center presenting with depression who have admitted to assaults from their partners. the overall hypothesis is that the shelter's counseling staff and ongoing support group will do more to domestic violence victims leave dangerous environments than therapists focusing solely on depression and not supplementing with an ongoing group experience. in this study, what is the most apparent dependent variable?