Battered women who leave: An explanatory model of factors involved in the separation process.

This multi-method study employed both qualitative in-depth interviews and quantitative questionnaires to address the topic of battered women's separation processes from their abusive partners. A community sample of thirty formerly battered women shared their experiences of violence and their stories of leaving their batterers. From these data, a comprehensive model emerged that identifies both the role of internal and external factors in women's ability and desire to leave their batterers. Internal factors are comprised of women's thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and ideas and external factors are comprised of women's social supports, social structures, or circumstances (e.g., partner's escalation of violence, pregnancy). The model illustrates the dynamic interplay between internal and external inhibiting factors (i.e., factors that serve to thwart a woman's ability or desire to leave) and internal and external empowering factors (i.e., factors that serve to promote a woman's ability or desire to leave). The model demonstrates that in order for a woman to permanently leave her batterer, she must have more empowering factors than inhibiting factors or the severity of an individual empowering factor must be so strong as to override any existing inhibitors. Theoretical implications of the model as well as directions for future research are also addressed.PhDClinical psychologyPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/131063/2/9825315.pd