Thesis (MA (Criminology))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, May, 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ball State University, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Apr. 27, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-90).

Although physical abuse during pregnancy has been linked to poor birth outcomes, the role of psychological abuse is less well understood. Associations between birth outcomes and types of psychological abuse during pregnancy (being threatened, screamed at, or insulted) were examined in 489 women with no history of physical abuse. Being threatened was significantly associated with adverse birth outcomes, with women reporting any instance during pregnancy twice as likely to deliver a low birth weight baby. These results remained after controlling for background factors. Finally, most of the variance between threats and birth weight was accounted for by mediating health behaviors (specifically prenatal care utilization and pregnancy weight gain), suggesting pathways for the negative effects of being threatened by an intimate partner during pregnancy.

No description available.

No description available.

Existent literature suggests forgiveness could lead to either greater psychological abuse (reinforcement theory), or lower psychological abuse (interpersonal theory). Questionnaires were completed by 291 participants who were dating at least 2 months. More forgiveness-particularly Absence of Negativity-was related to less abuse received from their partner, and this effect was stronger for females than for males. Absence of Negativity (AN) was predictive of health variables (psychosomatic symptoms, mental and physical health), although Presence of Positive forgiveness did not predict health beyond the impact of AN. Abuse-forgiveness and assertiveness-forgiveness interaction terms were not significant predictors of health. Results indicate interpersonal theory describes the link between forgiveness and psychological abuse. Results suggest that focus on AN could be sufficient for mental or physical health change

Women in distressed relationships who had sustained severe psychological abuse and either no, moderate, or severe violence from their partner were included (N = 93). Men's and women's alcohol use did not differ with level of violence. Different patterns were found in the moderate violence group regarding women's beliefs about their partner's substance problem, men's psychological abuse, and the relationship of men's and women's quantity of alcohol use and times intoxicated. Uncertainty resulting from moderate violence may strengthen the emotional impact of psychological abuse. Even when psychological abuse is exacerbated by violence, women may use active coping techniques rather than drinking to cope with abusive relationships. The findings suggest that an inordinate focus on alcohol abuse may be ineffective in combating the problem of domestic violence.

The most well-known premises of this thesis are two realities of human relationality. The first is essential to many expressions of theistic religious faith: relationships with gods can become intimate. The second is tragic: intimate relationships (such as between parents and children or between romantic partners) can become psychologically abusive. Naming these realities at once raises the question: can relationships with gods become psychologically abusive? If so, how so? Psychologists of religion increasingly study experiences of psychological harm in relating to gods but have not formulated the empirical question of experiencing psychological abuse by gods. Meanwhile, this question has received serious and thoughtful consideration in the writings of theologians, philosophers of religion, and biblical scholars and appears online as the topic of various opinion pieces and blog posts. Several of these authors have argued by analogy and/or by anecdote that the God of Jewish and/or Christian faith—or some version of this God—is indeed abusive. But without further theorization, neither analogical arguments, however valid, nor anecdotal evidence, however vast, can guide empirical research into possible experiences of psychological abuse in intimate relationships with gods. The central argument of this thesis is for the possibility and prima facie plausibility of supposing that some individuals undergo psychological abuse in their Divine relationships. For this argument, I take insights from psychodynamic theories of intimate Divine relationships and delve into the literature surrounding experiences of psychological abuse. For purposes of clinical interpretation and empirical research, I define and model Divine abuse. / 2020-09-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors of social worker and allied professional’s professional quality of life, particularly the impact of the professional’s childhood psychological abuse on compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction scores. Variables such as perceived resilience, social support, childhood psychological abuse, evidence-based practice training, years of experience, percentage of clients with trauma narratives, and case-load number are explored both conceptually and as risk or protective factors to social worker and allied professional’s compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction. A conceptual model is provided to visually show the direction of the proposed research. The sample to be used in this research consists of two-hundred-eighteen social worker and allied professionals in the United States who predominantly have a master’s degree or higher. A simple correlation analysis will be used to see any direct correlations between variables used in this study: childhood psychological abuse and its three components, compassion satisfaction, burnout, compassion fatigue, perceived resilience, social support and its three components, evidence-based training, education level, caseload, percentage of client trauma, and years of experience in the field. Multiple regression analysis will also be utilized in this research study to identify any relationship between the aforementioned variables and compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue. In focusing on the research question for this study, an examination of the simple correlational matrix found, for this sample of MSW social workers and allied professionals, no significant correlation between childhood psychological abuse and compassion fatigue or compassion satisfaction. Additionally, in running two separate regression models, one for predicting compassion fatigue and one for predicting compassion satisfaction, childhood psychological abuse was not a significant predictor for this sample’s study. Findings from this study disagree with the only study that attempts to measure childhood psychological abuse of the social worker and their reaction to secondary traumatic stress (Nelson-Gardell & Harris, 2004). There are two main differences between the two study samples: education, training level, and work experience, perhaps suggesting that social workers who are master’s level educated or higher are better protected from compassion fatigue related symptomology, or that the Nelson-Gardell & Harris study’s predominantly child welfare worker sample is encountering client trauma in a way that is unique from this study’s sample. Implications from this study’s findings are explored suggesting further research into the effects of education and evidence-based training as a protective factor from the effects of childhood psychological abuse on compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction.