Moving beyond disclosure: women's perspectives on barriers and motivators to seeking assistance for intimate partner violence.
Journal Article (Journal Article)
To investigate women's perceptions of motivators and barriers to seeking help or accessing intimate partner violence (IPV), services six focus groups were conducted in rural and urban settings in North Carolina between June and August of 2002. Coding and theme analysis were used to summarize themes among the 67 focus group participants. The majority of participants were African-American (87%). Participants reported three main categories of motivators: gaining knowledge; reaching an emotional or physical breaking point; and growing concern about children's safety. Participants reported six main categories of barriers: pressure not to talk about, or address IPV; failure to recognize events as IPV, or that IPV was wrong; self-doubt and low self-esteem; fear of losses; fear of perpetrator; or desire to protect the perpetrator. This study documents the difficulties that women face accessing or using services related to IPV. We need to address perceived barriers and better use the opportunity when women experience motivation to seek help and access services.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Petersen, R; Moracco, KE; Goldstein, KM; Clark, KA
Published Date
- 2004
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 40 / 3
Start / End Page
- 63 - 76
PubMed ID
- 15829446
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 0363-0242
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1300/j013v40n03_05
Language
- eng
Conference Location
- United States