A COMPARISON OF FORMERLY AND CHRONICALLY BATTERED WOMEN ON COGNITIVE AND SITUATIONAL DIMENSIONS

Battered women who had freed themselves from abusive relationships were compared with women who had not, and who had suffered at least four years of repeated, physical abuse. Relative to formerly abused women, chronically abused women had more traditional attitudes about women's roles, lower self-esteem, felt more controlled by outside forces, were less educated, were less likely to be employed or to receive counseling, suffered fewer incidents of serious bodily harm, and were more likely to believe that the good outweighs the bad in their relationship, that it was important to be approved of and cared for by others, that they lacked critical job skills, and that they should keep their family together 'no matter what'. An integrative cognitive theory is presented to explain the decision to remain in a long-term abusive relationship.