Impact of Family and Friends' Reactions on the Well-Being of Women with Abusive Partners

• NCJ Number: 200060
• Journal: Violence Against Women Volume: 9 Issue: 3 Dated: March 2003 Pages: 347-373
• Author(s): Jessica R. Goodkind; Tameka L. Gillum; Deborah I. Bybee; Cris M. Sullivan
• Date Published: March 2003
• Length: 27 pages
• Grant Number(s): R01 MH44849
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Mental Health
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the extent to which battered women talked with family and friends about being abused and how family and friends responded.

Abstract

The 137 women who participated in the study had exited a domestic violence shelter program located in a mid-sized Midwestern city. Interviews with the women used instruments that assessed women's experiences of abuse, their relationship with their assailant, reactions from family and friends, and the women's psychological well-being (quality of life and depression). Ninety-one percent of the women reported having talked with family and/or friends about the violence they were experiencing. Negative reactions from family and friends were found to be strongly related to lower quality of life for women. When those who had negative reactions also offered the women a place to stay in their homes, the battered women's quality of life became even lower. As was the case with quality of life, negative reactions and an offer of a place to stay shared a certain amount of variance that affected women's depression. This report discusses some of the contextual and situational factors that apparently affected family and friends' reactions to the abused women. 6 tables and 37 references