In this phenomenological study, battered women from a multiethnic population in Hawaii provided descriptions of their lived experiences. Colaizzi's method was used to identify three major theme clusters that emerged from the data, reflecting how the women organized their stories: (a) painting the whole picture, (b) describing the violence, and (c) living with the consequences. Each major theme was further broken down into subthemes that described how it felt to live in an abusive situation. In reviewing the impact of culture, there were more similarities than differences among cultures.
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