Profile and Strategies of Women who Have Ended Abuse

Abstract

In this study of survivors who have successfully ended abuse by a spouse, the authors present a profile of survivors' personal and abuse histories, describe strategies used to end abuse, and report satisfaction with clinicians. Clinical application emphasized that (1) under certain conditions, abuse can end and relationships can be sustained; (2) abusers must be proactive for relationships to survive; and (3) abusive partners need to receive treatment early.

Exploring Battered Mexican-Origin Women's Help-Seeking Within Their Sociocultural Contexts

“…(See Table 6.) In line with previous research (Bowker & Maurer, 1986;Horton & Johnson, 1993;Kurz, 1990), domestic violence shelters received a higher rating of perceived effectiveness than the police. About a quarter of the sample sought help from a counselor and counselors received, on average, a "moderately" to "very" helpful rating.…”

“…Services were perceived by participants to be "moderately" to "very" helpful in surviving abuse. While previous research not specific to Mexican-origin women has found accessing formal services to be an important factor in battered women's ability to leave an abusive situation (Horton and Johnson, 1993), this study's findings indicate that these services are important specifically for Mexican-origin women as well.…”

“…Horton and Johnson (1993) found that 96% of the battered women who successfully and safely left their abusive situation had discussed the abuse with someone or some agency. Women who are successful in leaving an abusive relationship tend to have received external help in the form of economic resources (Pfouts, 1978;Strube & Barbour, 1983), support services (Strube & Barbour, 1984), aid filing charges (Snyder & Scheer, 1981), and help obtaining a protective order (Snyder & Scheer, 1981).…”

“…to obtain help to leave the abusive situation. Research with non-Latina battered women has demonstrated that these formal and informal help-seeking strategies are important factors in determining women's ability to leave an abusive partner (Horton & Johnson, 1993).…”

“…Other qualitative studies (Avecedo, 2000;Sorenon, 1996) have found that values of machismo do deter helpseeking. Moreover, based on the finding that Latinas who remain abusive relationships have more traditional gender role norms (Vera, 2002), and the demonstrated relationship between leaving an abusive relationship and having sought help (Horton & Johnson, 1993), it is plausible to assume that more ascribing to greater levels of machismo would be associated with less frequent help-seeking. Further research is required to examine whether this theory holds up empirically.…”