Reasons for Pakistani Women to Stay/Leave an Abusive Relation

The aim of this research was to investigate the reasons why women in Pakistan choose to stay in an abusive relation. It was hypothesized that 1-women who consider themselves as self sufficient would opt to leave the abusive relation rather then continuing to live with it as compared to women who are less resourceful.2- Women who fear social rejection would continue to live in an abusive relation as compared to those women who are not afraid of isolation .Since this was a very sensitive area triangulation method was adopted for in depth understanding .A purposeful sampling was applied for sample selection .A sample of 250 women was screened with help of HITS(Sherin) out of which only 216 continued with the project .Sample included 118 abused women and 98 not abused women . The HITS (Kevin), was translated back and forth. The data was gathered by screening with HITS and later conducting an interview with them based on Choice and Lamke model All the ethical codes and conducts were followed during the research for the safety of the participants. The data analysis indicated that the women who stayed in abusive relation were less resourceful and afraid of social isolation. There was one major limitation related to the size and representation from all provinces The findings could help in developing rehabilitation programs for the victims by helping them to cope well .For future research purpose the study should include other variables like physical well being and support system to depict the true picture of psychological well being of victims of IPV in Pakistan. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n6p71