Impact of Specific Battering Experiences on the Self-Esteem of Abused Women

• NCJ Number: 148360
• Journal: Journal of Family Violence Volume: 9 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1994) Pages: 35- 45
• Author(s): R J Aguilar; N N Nightingale
• Date Published: 1994
• Length: 11 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

To examine self-esteem of battered and nonbattered women, and to determine if specific battering experiences were more directly related to low self-esteem than others, researchers administered a questionnaire to an experimental group of 48 battered women and a control group of 48 nonbattered women.

Abstract

The results confirmed previous research showing that battered women have lower self-esteem than nonbattered women. Analyses identified four clusters of battering experiences: sexual/emotional abuse, physical abuse, emotional/controlling abuse, and miscellaneous abuse. Emotional/controlling abuse was the only type directly related to lower self-esteem; this type of abuse may contribute to the difficulty some battered women have in terminating their abusive relationships. 3 tables and 12 references