This dissertation identified and developed indicators of a new potential predictor of relationship satisfaction and intimate partner violence (IPV): discrepancies between the ideal and perceived gendered characteristics of romantic partners. Past research has overlooked the implicitly gendered nature of these "partner-ideals." Two pilot studies were conducted to develop measures of gendered partner-ideals and -perceptions based on existing measures of gender ideology. The main study examined survey data collected online from adults (n = 643) living in the U.S. who were in a heterosexual romantic relationship for at least six months. Three main hypotheses were tested regarding the associations among gender ideology, gendered partner-ideals, gendered partner-perceptions, gendered partner-ideal discrepancies, relationship satisfaction, and experiences with IPV. While confirmatory factor analyses supported the reliability of the new measures of masculine-ideals and -perceptions, results did not support the hypothesized factor structure of the feminine measures. Thus, only hypotheses utilizing women's data were tested. This measurement limitation resulted in an unanticipated focus on women's IPV perpetration for Hypothesis Two. However, these data are valuable in their uniqueness. Hypothesis One was supported: women's masculinity ideology positively correlated with the corresponding masculine-ideal for each subscale of the respective measures as well as for the aggregate measures. Tests of Hypothesis Two showed that women's masculine-ideal discrepancies predicted their emotional abuse perpetration, but not their physical assault or injury perpetration, mediated by relationship satisfaction. However, this effect was small. Hypothesis Three had mixed support. Women's aggregate masculine-partner perceptions were positively associated with their reports of emotional abuse victimization. Additionally, women's reports of most types of IPV victimization positively correlated with perceptions of their male partners' conformity to the specific norms of negativity toward sexual minorities and restrictive emotionality. Contributions of this dissertation and implications of the results are discussed. A major contribution is the creation of masculine-ideals and -perceptions measures that can be used in future research on relationships. Study results suggest that gendered partner-ideals and -perceptions, beyond gender-ideology, have relevance to the functioning of romantic relationships--including both relationship satisfaction and some kinds of IPV. Future research should continue to investigate the validity of the created measures and explore the possibility of using discrepancies between gendered partner-ideals and -perceptions to prevent and intervene in abusive romantic relationships.

Background: Elder abuse and its effects are a serious public health issue. However, little is known about therelation between psychological abuse, other factors (e.g. social support) and quality of life (QoL) by domain. This studyaddressed differences in QoL by domain between psychologically abused and non-abused. While considering otherfactors such as social support. Methods: The respondents were 4,467 (2,559 women) randomly selected persons aged 60-84 years living in7 European cities. The mean response across countries was 45.2%. The cross-sectional data were analyzed withbivariate/multivariate methods. Results: Abused respondents contrasted to non-abused scored lower in QoL (autonomy, 67.42 ± 21.26 vs. 72.39± 19.58; intimacy, 55.31 ± 31.15 vs. 67.21 ± 28.55; past/present/future activities, 62.79 ± 19.62 vs. 68.05 ± 18.09;social participation, 65.03 ± 19.84 vs. 68.21 ± 19.77). Regressions showed that abuse was negatively associated withautonomy, intimacy and past/present/future activities, and positively with the social participation. All QoL dimensionswere negatively associated with country and depressive/anxiety symptoms, and positively with social support. Further,variables such as age, sex and somatic symptoms were negatively associated with some of the QoL dimensions andothers such as family structure, education, health care use and drinking positively. The regression model “explained”32.8% of the variation in autonomy, 45.6% in intimacy, 44.8% in past/present/future activities and 41.5% in socialparticipation. Conclusions: Abuse was linked to lower QoL in most domains, but other factors such as depressive symptomsalso carried a negative impact. Social support and to some extent family structure had a “protective” effect on QoL.Abuse, health indicators (e.g. depressive symptoms) and social support should be considered in addressing the QoL ofolder persons. However, QoL was influenced by many factors, which could not be firmly disentangled due to the crosssectionalapproach, calling for longitudinal research to address causality.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Seminary, Portland, Or., 2000. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 531-554).

In view of the lack of a culture-specific tool to measure psychological maltreatment comprehensively in Chinese women, this research study aims to validate the Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory (PMWI) for Chinese women. The validation was conducted in two phases: (a) preparation of the Revised Chinese PMWI and (b) full psychometric testing of the questionnaire. In the preparation phase, the PMWI was first revised taking into account the possible cultural differences between Chinese and non-Chinese women. In addition, given the changing nature of psychological maltreatment with the advent of mobile digital devices, supplementary items were added to keep the instrument in line with the expanding scope of this phenomenon. The revised PMWI included 67 items after revision, and was translated into Chinese by two bilingual translators using forward and back translation. The Revised Chinese PMWI was reviewed by a panel of intimate partner violence (IPV) experts in Hong Kong for the relevance of items to Chinese women, resulting in the scale-level content validity index of 0.94, which indicated the content validity was satisfactory. After adjustment of items based on the experts’ opinions, cognitive debriefing was conducted with a sample of 10 Chinese women to confirm the comprehensibility of the Revised Chinese PMWI by the target population. The last step in the preparation phase was assessment of test-retest reliability of the questionnaire among 37 Chinese women with a 2-week interval, which was shown to be satisfactory with an intraclass correlation coefficient over 0.95. The second phase of the validation process was the full psychometric testing of the Revised Chinese PMWI. The validation study included 1198 Chinese women who had been in intimate relationships during the preceding 12 months. Based on exploratory factor analysis, the questionnaire was reduced to 49 items. The test revealed two factors as the original English version, emotional-verbal and dominance-isolation, which were further verified by confirmatory factor analysis. In addition, known-groups validity was demonstrated by significant differences in scores between women recruited from different places (shelter as opposed to community center) and with different abuse histories (abused in past year, not abused but in distressed in relationships, or not abused in satisfactory relationships). Moreover, convergent validity was established through moderate-to-strong correlations of the Revised Chinese PMWI with measures assessing other forms of IPV, controlling behaviors, marital satisfaction, and depression. Trivial correlation with unrelated demographic variables (number of children and education level) indicated discriminant validity. Regarding reliability, the Revised Chinese PMWI showed good internal consistency. Cronbach’s alpha for each subscale ranged from 0.947 to 0.966 and was 0.975 for the entire tool. The use of the comprehensive validation procedures in the present study provided evidence for both cultural appropriateness and satisfactory psychometric properties of the Revised Chinese PMWI. It shows promise as a useful instrument in research and clinical practice to measure the experience of psychological maltreatment in intimate relationships in Chinese women. / published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

Access to abstract permanently restricted to Ball State community only / Access to thesis permanently restricted to Ball State community only / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Bakgrund: Under år 2012 ökade anmälningarna av barnmisshandel. Barnmisshandel oavsett art innebär alltid en kränkning för barnet och om det dessutom sker av en anhörig har barnet förlorat den person som ska stå för den fasta tryggheten. Både fysisk misshandel, psykisk misshandel eller omsorgsvikt skadar barnet allvarligt och innebär stora hälsoproblem för barnet. Därför var det av stor vikt att identifiera barnet i ett tidigt skede för att kunna ge stöd och agera utefter behov. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att belysa distriktssköterskans erfarenhet av att se och identifiera kännetecken på ett misshandlat barn. Metod: En induktiv ansats valdes och fyra distriktssköterskor i Hallands län med erfarenhet av ämnet intervjuades. En intervjuguide med semistrukturerade frågor användes och materialet analyserades utifrån kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Att arbeta som distriktssköterska innebar att vara barnets ombud och alltid se till barnets bästa och arbeta utifrån barnperspektivet samt att främja dess hälsa. Det var av stor vikt att så tidigt som möjligt få inblick i barnets familjesituation samt att skapa en bra relation till föräldrarna för att kunna identifiera ett misshandlat barn så tidigt som möjligt. Slutsats: Med ökad kunskap om kännetecken och symtom på barnmisshandel och kunskap om hur en tidig upptäckt av barnmisshandel kan ske, ökar barnets möjlighet till tidig stöttning och hjälp. Med fortsatt forskning, utbildning och utveckling av redskap ökar chanserna att upptäcka de misshandlade barnet i ett tidigt skede.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2005.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2007 / Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Social Work. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-62).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Seminary, Portland, Or., 2000. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 531-554).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Seminary, Portland, Or., 2000. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 531-554).