The authors hypothesized that self-affirmation would buffer the impact of woman abuse on self-esteem. Participants were 60 women who experienced physical violence during the past year and 60 women who did not experience physical violence in the past 12 months. The women completed scales measuring physical violence, psychological maltreatment, self-affirmation, and self-esteem. Both psychological maltreatment and self-affirmation significantly predicted the self-esteem of the currently battered women but were not predictive of self-esteem for the comparison women. These results suggest that self-affirmation may act as a buffer for women's self-esteem in the presence of violence.
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