NCJ Number
141804
Journal
Violence and Victims Volume: 7 Issue: 3 Dated: (Fall 1992) Pages: 229-243
Date Published
1992
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This article reports on a study that examined the utility of coping capacity as a multivariable set to guide intervention with women who have abusive partners.
Abstract
The study examined the coping capacity of four groups of women: those whose partners did not engage in abuse, those whose partners were abusive toward them, those whose partners sexually molested their children or stepchildren, and those whose partners abused children who were not those of the woman. Three variable sets included vulnerability factors that may negatively influence appraisals of threat and ability to cope with abuse; coping responses that included cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions to the abuse; and coping resources expected to mediate effects of vulnerability factors and to influence the mobilization (or lack thereof) of coping responses. There were significant differences in coping capacity profiles across the four groups. There was apparently a continuum of coping capacity, with women who were most directly threatened showing the lowest capacity and women who were least directly threatened showing the highest levels of coping capacity. The rankings from lowest to highest levels of coping capacity were battered women, women whose partners abused their children, women whose partners abused children who were not the woman's offspring, and control group women. The report concludes with a conceptual interpretation of the mediating functions of coping resources and implications for intervention and further study. 2 figures, 3 tables, and 36 references