Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, 2003. / Prepared for: Dept. of Psychology. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-75). Also available online via the Internet.

Thesis (M. Nurs.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-95).

published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

Not available / text

Family violence is a tragedy in any community. The pastoral image of a quiet home in "Mayberry" is shattered by the reality of family violence. The literature reveals that family violence is a social health issue in rural communities, however it does not provide sufficient insight into the influential contextual factors. The goal of this research was to conduct an ethnography into relevant contextual factors in rural family violence to provide researchers with information on which to base decisions, develop effective programs and interventions, and influence policy. The purpose was to better understand this social health issue within the context of a rural community and to identify influential contextual factors useful in developing a praxis theory for addressing health issues in rural communities.Specific aims were: 1) to learn from rural residents how rural context affects family and community health; 2) to deepen understanding of family violence related to rurality; and 3) to propose a theoretical model of family violence for eventual practical use in informing, assessing, and intervening with a community.Methodology: Within a paradigm of social constructivism, interviews and focus groups provided data for this ethnographic study and a scholarly description of family violence in a rural community in southeastern Arizona.Findings: An iterative process of data analysis yielded five organizing themes and an emerging praxis theory. The organizing themes were substance abuse; lack of resources; lack of understanding and awareness of family violence; family and values; and strong sense of community. The emerging theory indicates it is necessary to consider the context, physical environment, and significant relationships of a person when developing and implementing a plan of care to achieve optimal outcomes.Conclusion: A constructionist view that undergirds ethnographic methodology allows for the voice of the community to express the local realities. The juxtaposition of knowledge of nursing and this constructionist view generates meaningful descriptions and understandings of the health problem of family violence. This new knowledge can be used to work with the community to identify intervention strategies. The issues of family violence are inseparably intertwined within a community, so are the solutions.

This dissertation examined how psychological variables associated with selfcontrol related to abusiveness in situations of intimate conflict. The variables of interest were efficacy, need for power and responsibility. These variables were examined relative to other predictors of abuse such as the Abusive Personality (Dutton, 1994b), a construct of personality features that predispose some men to intensely aversive emotional arousal in their intimate relationship, leading to abusiveness. The research is relevant to the experience of those men with the characteristics of Abusive Personality, as well as those who may not have those predispositional features. The first step of the project was the development of the Power, Conflict Efficacy and Responsibility Questionnaire (PCERQ), with its four sub-scales: (1) Conflict Ineffectiveness (CI; lack of conflict efficacy), (2) N-Power (NP; need for power), (3) Standards of Non-Abusiveness (SNA; one part of responsibility), and (4) Exonerative Rationalizations (ER; cognitions complicit with inconsistent self-control - a second part of responsibility). These sub-scales were developed on the basis of data collected from samples of undergraduate males in dating relationships (n = 147), men in treatment groups for wife assault (n = 50), and a community sample of men (n = 27). Results from regression equations predicting self-reported abuse with the PCERQ sub-scales, along with other theoretically-relevant measures, found that CI was a prominent and consistent predictor of both verbal and physical abuse. The interaction of the NP and ER sub-scales significantly predicted physical abuse, as did the interaction of the CI sub-scale with the Abusive Personality (the most abusive participants had the highest scores on both Abusive Personality and Conflict Ineffectiveness). These results show the importance of considering both situational conflict experiences, along with personality and life history variables, when examining wife assault.

Up until the 1980s, the police often reluctantly intervened in domestic disputes. However, from the mid 1980s onwards, the introduction of pro-arrest family violence policies throughout the U.S., the U.K., and New Zealand, signalled a significant shift in police practices. It was hoped that the adoption of these policies would help improve the police response to family violence, and it was anticipated that police behaviour would consequently change. Unfortunately, the implementation of these policies has been fraught with difficulties, and they have often not translated easily into practice, or resulted in the intended changes. The current study, which was conducted in Christchurch in 2004, sought to understand how a pro-arrest policy was implemented at the local level. Drawing on a symbolic interactionist approach, and utilising Lipksy's (1980) street-level bureaucracy theory, this research focuses on a number of issues, including the application of the pro-arrest policy at the street-level, and its associated problems, and the legitimate/illegitimate exercise of discretion. This study has found evidence of significant practical problems with the implementation of the pro-arrest policy, which are similar to those that have been reported overseas.

<p>The problem of abusive relationships has attracted national attention in South Africa. Historically South Africa has a strongly entrenched patriarchal system, which gives men proprietary rights over women. Traditional and cultural values as means of resolving conflict are critical in shaping and perpetuating violence of men toward women. A woman&rsquo / s social status is believed to be derived by her relative position to a man that is as daughter, wife, girlfriend or mother of his children. One solution to ending the abuse and leading violence free lives would be to leave the relationship. While this is a possible solution it should be noted that in order for women to leave it requires enormous restructuring of material, physical and social relations. A qualitative feminist research methodology was used with a convenience sample of 8 women who agreed to participate in the study. In depth interviews were conducted with the participants to explore the perceptions and experiences of Xhosa women in abusive relationships. The participants resided in Khayelitsha, Phillipi and Langa. The interviews lasted from 30 minutes to 45 minutes, were audio taped and transcribed. In view of the qualitative nature of the study, the researcher employed thematic analysis. Women mentioned their experiences of abuse and discussed their help seeking strategies. A number of themes that emerged from the study suggested clearly women&rsquo / s perceptions and experiences to remain in their abusive relationships. These themes relate to commitment, staying because of children, cultural beliefs (lobola), economic dependence and lack of social support. It also emerged from the discussions with women that the emotional and structural support that these women received from the NGO played a huge role. The most important finding from the study was that change occurred as a result of abuse.</p>

The aim of this research was to explore the impacts that local culture in rural places has on women's experiences, and men's perpetration of domestic violence. The Australian literature on domestic violence is abundant. Feminist explanations have brought the issue to the public agenda, and informed services and responses. Yet, in recent years, such understandings have been criticised for being limiting and failing to recognise significant empirical differences in patterns of violence in society or to allow analysis of other factors that play an important role. Furthermore, despite the richness of domestic violence research, only a few Australian and overseas studies have looked specifically at domestic violence in rural areas. These studies have predominantly identified barriers that keep women trapped in abusive relationships. Some researchers have alluded to rural culture based on conservative, patriarchal belief systems and the pursuit of a rural idyll as being amongst these barriers, and have argued that the effects of patriarchal relationships and structures cannot be ignored. Other researchers have argued that the contexts and cultures of rural communities are changing, that there is not one rural community and culture but many varied rural communities and individual identities, and that these need to be understood and explored. Other than recommendations that rural culture needs to be explored, research has not yet concentrated on how local culture plays itself out in relationships between women and man where domestic violence exists in their lives. / Hence, this thesis aims to investigate this. It focuses on the impacts of local culture on rural women and men, specifically the impacts on domestic violence in a rural context. In this study, 'culture' is defined as meaning 'created by people to make sense of the world'. Their values, beliefs, ideas and opinions arise out of interactions with other people and are constructed out of the discourses available to them. / The study described in this thesis explored local culture in the Barossa Valley region of South Australia. The methodology and analysis were informed by feminist poststructural understandings of knowledge, as these enabled discourse analysis and an insight into women's and men's identities, and local power. Semi-structured interviews and investigations of local cultural texts were used to collect constrictions of local culture from local stories. Discourses dominating local culture were identified, and the way in which these impacted on domestic violence was analysed. / The study found several local cultural discourses that impacted on the issue of domestic violence. Discourses included self-reliance, pride, privacy, belonging and closeness, Christianity, and family. The power and influence of these discourses made it difficult to name, identify and challenge domestic violence in the Barossa Valley because it is entrenched as an acceptable expression of the local culture's overarching patriarchal discourse. / It has been argued that by listening to people's stories, it is possible to explore local culture in rural contexts and identify how particular understandings and interpretations of that culture impact on people and their experiences of domestic violence. Identifying and acknowledging discourses that have power and strength within the community make it possible to challenge discourses that silence domestic violence by making it difficult for women and men to seek assistance. However, analysis of, and any challenge to a specific local culture need to be sensitive to the community, as effecting change to address domestic violence works best if it is supported within that community. Therefore, it is imperative to learn about local culture from the community, and to do so with respect, openness, and willingness. Listening to communities provides a better opportunity to create alternative discourses that confront domestic violence. Using localised, feminist poststructural understandings and approaches enables exploration of different cultures in different rural contexts, and provides the analytical tools to move beyond the context of patriarchy to local understandings, community contexts, and community-owned solutions to domestic violence. Encouraging rural communities to define their local situations is important when trying to find local solutions to social issues. / This study recommends that when developing policy and practice for addressing domestic violence issues, it is crucial to provide locally-based and culturally-appropriate services if these are to be supported by the community and used by local people. Arguing for localised, feminist poststructural understandings and approaches to domestic violence provides directions for further research about domestic violence specifically in rural contexts, and more generally in other contexts. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2005.

Data from a prospective, longitudinal study of a birth cohort of over 1000 New Zealanders was used to examine the relationships between the level of childhood physical abuse a young person is exposed to during childhood (birth to 16 years), and a range of later parenting outcomes in young adulthood. To address this issue, three questions were considered. First, the study examined risk factors that contribute to an early transition to parenthood. Second, this study investigated the current family circumstances of contemporary young parents and their families. And finally, the association between childhood physical abuse and later parenting outcomes was examined. All members of the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS) who had become parents by age 25 (112 women and 55 men) were included in the study. To be eligible for inclusion cohort members had to be either biological parents or actively involved in the parenting of non-biological children on a regular basis. Exposure to childhood physical abuse (CPA) was measured at ages 18 and 21 based on cohort member's retrospective reports. At age 25, a parenting interview was conducted which included the following measures of parenting: the Conflict-Tactics Scale (CTS-PC; Straus, Hamby, Finkelhor, Moore, & Runyan, 1998), Dunn scales of positivity and negativity (Dunn, Deater-Deckard, Pickering, & Golding, 1999), the Parenting Practices Questionnaire (PPQ; Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen, & Hart, 1995), HOME ratings of responsivity and avoidance of punishment (Caldwell & Bradley, 1979), and interviewer ratings of parental warmth, sensitivity, and child management (Quinton, Rutter, & Liddle, 1984). Findings showed that parents who experienced higher levels of punishment whilst growing up were more negative and less positive towards their own children, were more accepting of the use of physical discipline, and scored lower on warmth, sensitivity and child management compared to those with lower levels of exposure to childhood physical abuse. These findings contribute to our understanding of the effects of childhood physical abuse on later parenting outcomes.