Sociocultural Groundings of Battered Women’s Entrapment in Abusive Marital Relationship in Ghana

While social psychological theorizations have contributed to our understanding of why battered women continue to remain in abusive intimate relationships, its apparent exclusive focus on individual victims’ psychological orientation leaves little conceptual space for discovering the subtle ways by which social and cultural norms shape the stay/leave decisions of victims of spousal violence. Drawing upon discursive psychology, this study explores the sociocultural groundings of stay/leave decisions of battered women in Ghana. Semi-structured focus groups and personal interviews were conducted with 32 participants: 16 victims and 16 perpetrators from rural and urban Ghana. Discursive accounts of participants suggest that post-divorce social stigma, remarriage alternatives, and post-divorce child care, as well as privacy framing of marital abuse function in concert to influence battered women’s entrapment in violent marital relationships. The article argues that, rather than individual psychological orientation, the decision to stay in or leave abusive marital relationships in Ghana is socioculturally and structurally grounded. To understand the highly complex nature of spousal violence, one must always go beyond the person and his or her psychological orientations, and seek the origin of battered women’s entrapment also in the external conditions of life, and in the sociocultural and structural forms of human existence.     

Predicting Women's Intentions to Leave Abusive Relationships: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior1

A theoretically derived decision‐making model was applied to predict women's intentions to remain in or to terminate physically abusive relationships with male partners. Participants were 48 women residing in a shelter for battered women who responded to questionnaires assessing the components of the theory of planned behavior. Data provided support for the model. Specifically, women were found to have greater intentions to leave the relationships if they held positive attitudes toward leaving and believed they were in control of leaving the relationship. Normative beliefs were not predictive of intentions to leave. Empirically based suggestions for increasing the effectiveness of interventions are discussed.     

The Battered Committed Christian Woman: The Value Difference

Many studies have been conducted to examine why some battered women return to abusive relationships (Alsdurf & Alsdurf, 1989a, 1989b; Herbert, Silver, & Ellard, 1991; Hoffman, 1992; Strube, 1988; Strube & Barbour, 1983; Walker, 1977–1978). The authors review factors linked to the battered woman's return to the abusive environment and suggest an additional factor—the values of the woman. Moral development and some of the beliefs of the committed Christian woman are examined. The influence of these factors on her decision to remain in the abusive relationship are discussed. Interventions that accommodate to the framework of the committed Christian woman's value/belief system are explored. Counselors are also encouraged to explore their own value systems in relation to their clients to ascertain if and how these values may influence their clients.     

Shelter workers' perceptions of battered women

Research suggests that battered women vary in their perceptions about battering, and women holding certain causal explanations to external and stable causes are more likely to state that they want to leave the abusive situation than women holding internal and unstable attributions (Frieze, 1979). The present study addressed the impact of battered women's causal explanations for the violence in their lives on shelter workers' perceptions of their clients. The results partially confirmed the hypothesis that shelter workers would react more positively to battered women who attributed their battering to stable and external causes than battered women who attributed their battering to unstable and internal causes. The implications of the findings for counseling battered women are discussed.     

Women with Children in Violent Relationships

Summary

Custody issues for battered women means continuing involvement with a violent, abusive, intimidating partner. This article explores the continuing power and control dynamics of the domestic violence relationship after the woman with children leaves, and presents some preliminary findings. The custody of the children, visitation and financial arrangements often become the basis of terrorism as the man attempts to continue to control the woman's behavior with threats against the children. Fear of losing her children may force a woman to stay in a violent relationship, or return in spite of danger to her children and herself. On the other hand, the history of violence may make it difficult for the mother to cooperate with the court orders regarding joint custody or visitation even when safety appears not to be an issue. It is important for professionals working with children of violent families to understand the continuing effects of domestic violence after separation in order to provide assistance to children “caught in the middle” in custody disputes.     

Research Concerning Wife Abuse

SUMMARY

Violence toward women has been declared a public health epidemic. To date, research on battered women in medical settings has focused primarily on incidence and prevalence and on identification of risk markers. Such research also has elucidated low rates of battered women identified in medical settings, as well as barriers to such identification. Methods of training physicians to identify and help battered women are described in the present article. The unique role of psychologists and other mental health professionals in designing and evaluating such programs is discussed.     

The Relationship between Characteristics of the Victim,Persuasive Techniques of the Batterer,and Returning to a Battering Relationship

Abstract

In two studies, we examined factors involved in the returning of American women to a battering relationship. In Study 1, several self-reported characteristics of 117 women in a shelter for battered women were found to predict intentions to return to the batterer or number of subsequent admissions to the shelter. In Study 2, 24 battered women identified on questionnaires several techniques commonly used by their batterers to persuade them to stay with or return to them.     

Bandwidth and Fidelity on the NEO-Five Factor Inventory: Replicability and Reliability of Saucier's (1998) Item Cluster Subcomponents

Battered and nonbattered women were administered the Hand Test to determine which psychological test variables could distinguish between these groups. Compared to the nonbattered group, the battered group produced substantially more fear responses. We also found significant positive relationships between the amount of fear responses produced and frequency of abuse, number of previous visits to a battered women's shelter, and medical treatment sought following an abusive incident. We discuss these results in the context of previous findings and their implications for the personality of battered women. We speculate that lowered environmental interest might be a personality factor that prolonged the abuse and that fear is a basic reaction to anticipated bodily harm.     

Battered Women

SUMMARY

This review of research findings on woman battering reveals how research has played a major role in changing social policy and challenging common myths and stereotypes. The earliest literature contained the ideas of a few psychotherapists who viewed woman battering as a rare phenomenon that involved masochistic women and sadistic men, which led to the myth of psychopathology as the mediating factor. Research following the birth of the battered women's movement destroyed this and some subsequent myths. It led to changes in medical practitioners' attitudes toward battered women patients and law enforcement's reaction to battering victims and their abusers. It also revealed important facts about the courts' handling of abusers and their victims and about violent relationships that result in homicide. The myth that children living in violent households are unharmed has been soundly discredited, yet despite these findings, many battered women continue to face serious difficulties when they attempt to divorce their abusers and obtain custody of their children. Other myths have been exposed by researchers on the basis of their findings. However, once ideas gain popular public acceptance, they tend to continue to exert influence. Nevertheless, positive changes have occurred in the entire spectrum of medical, legal, and social services with which battered women must interface. The research findings reviewed here help highlight current needs and suggest future directions.     

Relations between Hand Test variables and the psychological characteristics and behaviors of battered women

Battered and nonbattered women were administered the Hand Test to determine which psychological test variables could distinguish between these groups. Compared to the nonbattered group, the battered group produced substantially more fear responses. We also found significant positive relationships between the amount of fear responses produced and frequency of abuse, number of previous visits to a battered women's shelter, and medical treatment sought following an abusive incident. We discuss these results in the context of previous findings and their implications for the personality of battered women. We speculate that lowered environmental interest might be a personality factor that prolonged the abuse and that fear is a basic reaction to anticipated bodily harm.     

Why do battered women stay?: Three decades of research

A review of the domestic violence research was conducted to assess the most salient factors that predict the likelihood of a woman remaining in or leaving an abusive relationship. The research is still in its early stage and no single theory can confidently predict this tendency on the part of battered women. Research that currently appears to provide the best explanations for remaining in an abusive relationship and factors that enable women to end their abuse are summarized.     

Why do battered women stay?: Three decades of research

A review of the domestic violence research was conducted to assess the most salient factors that predict the likelihood of a woman remaining in or leaving an abusive relationship. The research is still in its early stage and no single theory can confidently predict this tendency on the part of battered women. Research that currently appears to provide the best explanations for remaining in an abusive relationship and factors that enable women to end their abuse are summarized.     

Beit Noam

Summary

The initiative of founding the Noam Association, an Israeli association for the prevention of domestic abuse, and Beit Noam, a live-in intervention program for abusive men, was based on the objective of combating the core of the phenomena of intimate violence. The main goals of treating the male batterers are: (1) To allow battered women andtheir children to remain in their homes and in their natural environment; (2) To treat, re-socialize and teach self-controlling skills and normative behavior to the male batterers; and (3) To stop the pattern of intimate violence from being transferred across generations. This article describes the therapy provided to batterers at Beit Noam, including two case studies, and the results of an assessment report.     

Gender and victimization by intimates

Recent data demonstrate that, although gender has an impact upon the experience of being a victim of an intimate's violence, there is no particular personality pattern that leads one to become a victim. Rather, women--who are socialized to adapt and submit, and who are likely to become victims of men's sexual violence or physical abuse--may not develop adequate self-protection skills as children, especially if they come from childhood homes in which females are victimized, leading to a later vulnerability to physical and sexual abuse. Men, however, socialized to express anger and aggression in an outward manner, learn to model the abuse witnessed or experienced in childhood and often learn that women are the "appropriate" recipients of this violence. Social learning theories of modeling and aggression are used to explain how such personality patterns develop, and the theory of learned helplessness is used to explain battered women's coping responses to their partners' abusive behavior. The extreme situation, in which a battered woman kills her partner in self-defense, is analyzed in order to understand women victims' sense of desperation and entrapment in severely abusive relationships and the extent to which their behaviors are in reaction to the abuse perpetrated by the mate.     

Trauma and Parenting in Battered Women

Summary

While research has documented the harmful effects of domestic violence on women and children, little attention has been paid to the effects on women's ability to parent in this dangerous environment. This paper examines theoretical perspectives on the effects of domestic violence on parenting and proposes an ecologically-based model which can be used to inform research on parenting and treatment of battered mothers. Trauma theory and traumatic bonding are integrated into the ecological model of parenting in battered women.     

Female Offenders in Domestic Violence

SUMMARY

It is well accepted that large numbers of men batter women. Although some data also reveal that women report assaulting men in large numbers, interpretation of the latter data has been fraught with controversy. The present article reports on a sample of women arrested for domestic violence. When questions were asked about frequency of violence initiation, which partner began the overall pattern of violence in the relationship, and the women's reasons for using violence, it was found that about two-thirds of the women were battered and using violence to protect themselves or to retaliate for previous violence against them. Implications of these findings for conceptualizing women's violence as well as for training law enforcement personnel are discussed.     

Intimate partner abuse of educated,employed black South African women: sociocultural factors

This study aimed to explore the influence of African culture and tradition on the abuse experiences of Black South African women who are educated and employed. Interviews were conducted with seven Black South African women (age range 38 to 47) who are college educated and employed. All participants were married for seven or more years and self-reporting to be in an abusive relationship. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic content analysis. The results indicate sociocultural factors such as patriarchal values within their culture as an underlying reason for their husbands’ abusive behaviour. Abuse seemed likely when the women perceived gender roles that were in conflict with their husband's gender role expectations of them. The cultural expectation that women should not leave a marriage appeared to play an implicit role in their staying in an abusive relationship.     

The relationship between abusive supervision,distributive justice and job satisfaction: A substitutes for leadership approach

IntroductionRecently, interest in abusive supervision has grown (Tepper, 2007). However, little is still known about organizational factors that can reduce the adverse effects of abusive supervision.ObjectiveBased on a substitute for leadership perspective (Kerr & Jermier, 1978), we predict that job resources adequacy and role clarity act as buffers in the negative relationship between abusive supervision, distributive justice and job satisfaction.MethodA sample of 253 employees from a City Hall was used to test our hypotheses.ResultsWe found that abusive supervision was significant and negatively related to distributive justice when job resources adequacy and role clarity were low, but not when job resources adequacy and role clarity were high, with consequences for job satisfaction.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that job resources adequacy and role clarity can reduce the negative impact of abusive supervision, which then lessens distributive unfairness perceptions and job dissatisfaction.     

VARIATIONS IN HELP-SEEKING, BATTERED WOMEN'S RELATIONSHIP COURSE, EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING, AND EXPERIENCES OF ABUSE OVER TIME

Despite assumptions that leaving the batterer offers the best chance for improvement in battered women's lives, few studies provide conclusive data on this issue. Although many women eventually reunite with partners, also unexamined is the influence of relationship course over time. Five waves of data from 206 low-income, largely Black, help-seeking battered women revealed minimal differences in emotional well-being either initially or over time for women following different relationship trajectories during the course of 1 year. Consistency in relationship status (completely apart, completely together) tended to be associated with sharper drops in violence during the year; abuse tended to decrease most slowly among women who were in and out of their relationship over time. Findings suggest that the act of leaving is not necessarily associated with improvements for victims—how the process of leaving occurs may be more influential. Challenging common assumptions, women remaining with partners may sometimes fare better than women who leave.     

The Buffering Role of Social Support Perceptions in Relation to Eating Disturbances among Women in Abusive Dating Relationships

Abuse is often associated with diminished social support networks, which typically serve to buffer individuals against stress-related outcomes, including eating disorders. The goal of the present study was to examine whether eating disturbances among women in abusive dating relationships varied as function of perceived social support. Although both physical and psychological aggression in women's (N=83) dating relationships was associated with symptomatic dieting and bulimic symptoms, only psychological aggression predicted unique variance. Although psychological aggression was directly related to eating symptoms, support from friends diminished the relation to bulimic symptoms, possibly because such support facilitated women's ability to distract themselves from their abusive situations. In contrast, perceived parental support buffered women in physically abusive relationships from disturbed eating patterns. Thus, depending on the nature of abuse women experienced, social support resources were differentially effective in buffering women from eating disturbances.