Domestic violence: social behavioral and psychological coping strategies, 1999
Toone, Victoria
1990-1999
This study investigated the emotional adjustment of battered women utilizing the theoretical frameworks of the hopelessness theory and the transactional stress-coping paradigm. This investigation should assist social workers to work with women who have experienced abuse. This study supports the fact that social workers must listen to what the women say and pay heed to their voices. Possibly, this work can help to redefine and revitalize the role of social workers as change agents, advocates, case managers, and program developers in the field of domestic violence. Battered women were asked to participate in the study and fifty women volunteered. The women were all involved in shelter programs, private counseling, or support groups in and around Metro-Atlanta. This descriptive study explored the relationship between the social, behavioral, and psychological strategies used by battered women to cope with depression because of domestic violence. The data analysis used was descriptive and inferential statistics. Most of the women in the study reported levels of depression, but did not report feeling hopeless. Participants who used problem-focused coping skills felt less despondent. The findings in this study were significant and supported previous research in this area. Most of the battered women in this study did not blame themselves for the abuse and interestingly enough, the more severe the first assault the more the women realized they were not the cause of the abuse.
text
application/pdf
1999-05-01
thesis
Master of Science (MS)
Clark Atlanta University
School of Social Work
Horton, Gale
Georgia--Atlanta
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/cau.td:1999_toone_victoria