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Impact of Specific Battering Experiences on the Self-Esteem of Abused Women

NCJ Number
148360
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 9 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1994) Pages: 35- 45
Author(s)
R J Aguilar; N N Nightingale
Date Published
1994
Length
11 pages
Annotation
To examine self-esteem of battered and nonbattered women, and to determine if specific battering experiences were more directly related to low self-esteem than others, researchers administered a questionnaire to an experimental group of 48 battered women and a control group of 48 nonbattered women.
Abstract
The results confirmed previous research showing that battered women have lower self-esteem than nonbattered women. Analyses identified four clusters of battering experiences: sexual/emotional abuse, physical abuse, emotional/controlling abuse, and miscellaneous abuse. Emotional/controlling abuse was the only type directly related to lower self-esteem; this type of abuse may contribute to the difficulty some battered women have in terminating their abusive relationships. 3 tables and 12 references