Victims of interpersonal violence try many different strategies to reduce or eliminate threats to their physical safety and emotional well-being. However, little is known about the relationship between women’s coping strategies and their mental health. In what contexts do specific coping strategies improve mental health, and in what contexts are they harmful? This study investigated the role of social support—a critical contextual factor—as a moderator of the relationship between problem-focused coping, and post-traumatic stress disorder and depression among low-income, African American battered women. Problem-focused coping was associated with mental health symptoms only in women with lower levels of overall social support and in women whose closest supporters gave mixed advice or advice to stay with their partners, as opposed to clear advice to leave. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
2.
Arias, I., & Pape, K. T. (1999). Psychological abuse: Implications for adjustment and commitment to leave violent partners. Violence and Victims, 14, 55-67.
3.
Barrera, M., Sandler, I. N., & Ramsay, T. B. (1981). Preliminary development of a scale of social support: Studies on college students. American Journal of Community Psychology, 9, 435-447.
4.
Belle, D. (1982). Social ties and social support. In D. Belle (Ed.), Lives in stress: Women and depression (pp. 133-144). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
5.
Bennett, L., Goodman, L. A., & Dutton, M. A. (1999). Systemic obstacles to the criminal prosecution of a battering partner: A victim perspective. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 14, 761-772.
6.
Blake, D. D., Weathers, F. W., Nagy, L. M., Kaloupek, D. G., Charney, D. S., & Keane, T. M. (1995). Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-IV. Boston: National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
7.
Blanchard, E. B., Jones-Alexander, J., Buckley, T. C., & Forneris, C. A. (1996). Psychometric properties of the PTSD checklist (PCL). Behavioral Research and Therapy, 34d, 669-673.
8.
Bowker, L. H. (1984). Battered wives and the police: A national study of usage and effectiveness. Police Studies, 7(2), 84-93.
9.
Bowker, L. H. (1987). Battered women as consumers of legal services: Reports from a national survey. Response, 10(1), 10-17.
10.
Brookings, J. B., & Bolton, B. (1988). Confirmatory factor analysis of the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List. American Journal of Community Psychology, 16, 137-147.
11.
Carver, C. S., Scheier, M. F., & Weintraub, J. K. (1989). Assessing coping strategies: A theoretically based approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 267-283.
12.
Cascardi, M., & O’Leary, K. D. (1992). Depressive symptomatology, self-esteem, and selfblame in battered women. Journal of Family Violence, 7, 249-259.
13.
Chang, D.B.K. (1989). An abused spouse’s self-saving process: A theory of identity transformation. Sociological Perspectives, 32, 535-550.
14.
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 385-396.
15.
Cohen, S., Mermelstein, R., Kamarck, T., & Hoberman, H. M. (1985). Measuring the functional components of social support. In I. G. Sarason & B. R. Sarason (Eds.), Social support: Theory, research and applications (pp. 73-94). The Hague, the Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff.
16.
Cohen, S., & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98, 300-357.
17.
Fine, M. (1992). Disruptive voices: The possibility of feminist research. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
18.
Flannery, R. B., & Harvey, M. R. (1991). Psychological trauma and learned helplessness: Seligmman’s paradigm reconsidered. Psychotherapy, 28, 374-378.
19.
Folkman, S. (1984). Personal control and stress and coping processes: A theoretical analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 839-852.
20.
Gelles, R., & Straus, M. (1988). Intimate violence: The definitive study of causes and consequences of abuse in the American family. New York: Simon & Schuster.
21.
Gondolf, E. (1988). Battered women as survivors: An alternative to learned helplessness. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
22.
Goodman, L. A. (1991). The prevalence of abuse among homeless and housed poor mothers: A comparison study. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 61, 489-500.
23.
Goodman, L., Bennett, L., & Dutton, M. A. (1999). Obstacles to domestic violence victims’ cooperation with the criminal prosecution of their abusers: The role of social support. Violence and Victims, 14, 427-444.
24.
Goodman, L. A., Dutton, M. A., Weinfurt, K., & Cook, S. (2003). The Intimate Partner Violence Strategies Index: Development and application. Violence Against Women, 9(2), 163-186.
25.
House, J. S., & Kahn, R. L. (1985). Measures and concepts of social support. In S. Cohen & S. L. Syme (Eds.), Social support and health (pp. 83-108). New York: Academic Press.
26.
Houskamp, B. M., & Foy, D. W. (1991). The assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 6, 367-375.
27.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York: Springer.
28.
Mitchell, R. E., & Hodson, C. A. (1983). Coping with domestic violence: Social support and psychological health among battered women. American Journal of Community Psychology, 11, 629-654.
29.
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385-401.
30.
Straus, M. (1979). Measuring intrafamily conflict and violence: The Conflict Tactics (CT) Scales. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 41, 75-88.
31.
Straus, M. (1990). The Conflict Tactics Scale and its critics: An evaluation and new data on validity and reliability. In M. A. Straus & R. J. Gelles (Eds.), Physical violence in American families: Risk factors and adaptations to violence in 8,145 families (pp. 49-74). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishing.
32.
Straus, M. A., Hamby, S. L., Boney-McCoy, S., & Sugarman, D. B. (1996). The Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2): Development and preliminary psychometric data. Journal of Family Issues, 17, 283-316.
33.
Sullivan, C. M. (1991). The provision of advocacy services to women leaving abusive partners. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 6, 45-54.
34.
Thoits, P. A. (1986). Social support as coping assistance. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 54, 416-423.
35.
Tolman, R. M. (1999). The validation of the Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory. Violence and Victims, 14, 25-37.
36.
Weathers, F. W., Litz, B. T., Herman, D. S., Huska, J. A., & Keane, T. M. (1993, October). The PTSD Checklist: Reliability, validity, & diagnostic utility. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, San Antonio, TX.
37.
Winemuller, D. R., Mitchell, M. E., Sutliff, J., & Cline, D. J. (1993). Measurement strategies in social support: A descriptive review of the literature. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 49, 638-648.
