CONFLICTING REALITIES OF WOMEN IN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS.
Contributors: University of Washington.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 145
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Psychology, Clinical.; Sociology, Individual and Family Studies.; Women's Studies.
Description: The purpose of the study was to describe the experience of being abused within the context of a significant relationship in its entirety and to explain how the nature of the relationship influences the choices a woman makes over time. The sample consisted of 30 women who were currently in or who had already left an abusive relationship. Data were collected on the duration, frequency and severity of the abuse sustained by women while in abusive relationships. A semistructured open-ended interview was used to obtain information describing from the woman's perspective the experience of being in an abusive relationship. Data analysis was conducted using the constant comparative method described by Glaser and Strauss (1967) and Spradley's (1980) method of domain analysis. Reliability was addressed by determining that codes developed by the investigator were supported by an independent analyst. Level I categories or emic categories fell naturally into two groups. One group, perceived context of an abusive relationship, consisted of environmental factors which set the context for understanding how a woman experiences the abuse. The second group describes the process of entrapment in and recovery from an abusive relationship. The process contains four phases. The phases are themes that were identified from the grouping of level II categories. Research questions guided the development of the level II categories. The four core themes of binding, enduring, disengaging, and recovering are phases through which a woman passes progressively as the meaning she ascribes to her abusive experience, her interactions with her partner, and her self change. The process of entrapment in and recovery from an abusive relationship is grounded in data collected through interviews with women who were in different phases of the process. The process is cumulative and multidimensional.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-02, Section: B, page: 0362.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, 1987.

School code: 0250.