Dating violence is a serious social problem that impacts on substantial numbers of young people and has the potential for short and long term destructive consequences. This study had two purposes. One purpose was to develop a detailed description of the coping processes of young women who experienced violence in their dating relationships. A second purpose was to develop a theoretical understanding of this process by systematically linking the concepts that emerged. A multiple-case study qualitative research design was selected to accomplish these purposes because it allowed the researcher to capture the complexity of the coping process. A contextual stress and coping theoretical framework guided this inquiry. Participants were recruited through community and college newspaper advertisements, flyers posted on a college campus, and through informal requests for referrals from colleagues in the counseling profession. A pool of 10 eligible young women between the ages of 18 and 33 was accumulated from which a theoretical sample of 5 women was selected to study in depth. Interviews with 10 women, focusing on the 5 studied in depth, were the main data sources for this study. Selection of the theoretical sample and data analysis was based on the tenets of the grounded theory approach developed by Glaser and Strauss. This study identified a number of intrapersonal, interpersonal and contextual factors affecting how these women coped with dating violence. The major constructs that emerged were: women's vulnerabilities, couple imbalances, seductive processes, disentanglement processes and paradigmatic shifts. In essence, it was discovered that vulnerable young women who formed fused, imbalanced relationships with vulnerable men tended to use system-maintaining coping strategies to deal with the violence and were subject to powerful seductive processes until they began to disentangle themselves from their relationships. The disentanglement process was sparked by internal or external events that led women to reappraise their relationships and to take self reclaiming steps. Paradigmatic shifts, i.e., shifts from relationship commitment to self commitment, were the culmination of the disentanglement process and the impetus to women leaving their relationships. / Ed. D.