Intimate Partner Violence Strategies Index

Exploring Battered Mexican-Origin Women's Help-Seeking Within Their Sociocultural Contexts

“…The present study agrees with the conceptualization of battered women as survivors who act on their own behalf in obvious and less recognizable ways, both to leave the abuser and to survive while in the abusive situation Goodman et al, 2003;Lempert, 1996). There is a need for research that documents the diverse survival strategies and their perceived effectiveness employed by a particular subset of battered women of Color, i.e., Mexican-origin women.…”

“…Contrary to the theory of "learned helplessness" (Walker, 1979(Walker, , 1984, from a survivor theory perspective, battered women respond to the threat and occurrence of violence by actively and continuously seeking help to protect themselves (and, if mothers, their children) in a myriad of creative ways (Browne, 1998;. This includes accessing formal and informal resources to leave the abusive situation as well as employing survival strategies while still living in the abusive situation Goodman, Dutton, & Weinfurt, 2003). Yet, while battered women of all cultures, races, ethnicities, and social classes act to survive abuse, helpseeking must be considered within women's particular socio-cultural contexts.…”

“…In summary, previous research has documented non-Latina battered women's formal help-seeking (Allen et al, 2004) as well as their usage of specific help sources such as shelters (Goodman et al, 2003), police (Wolf et al, 2003), counselors (Horton & Johnson, 1993), and medical services (Kurz, 1990). While these findings have suggested that some services (i.e., shelters) are more helpful for these women than others (i.e., police) (Horton & Johnson, 1993;Kurz, 1990), research has generally pointed to the importance of formal help-seeking in helping women to survive abuse (Horton & Johnson, 1993).…”

“…Empirical Goodman et al, 2003) and qualitative (Lempert, 1996) studies conducted with non-Latinas have demonstrated how strategies to survive within the relationship can be viewed as evidence of the women's resistance and agency. Lempert (1996), for example, interviewed 32 battered women and discovered that even actions that might be viewed as submissive (i.e., placating, hiding), in fact, were conscious strategies employed by women to mitigate abuse, protect children, or otherwise ameliorate the situation.…”

“…Leaving strategies refer to accessing the informal and formal supports and services discussed above. Similarly, Goodman et al (2003) built on previous research to suggest and empirically test the categories of "safety planning" (i.e., hiding car or house keys, work out escape plan), "resistance" (i.e., fighting back, leaving home), and "placating" (i.e., avoid him, try to keep things quiet for him). These researchers also acknowledge informal and formal help-seeking to be important survival efforts made by battered women.…”