Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a complex phenomenon of abusive partners’ behavior and is a serious public health problem that affects women’s health. It includes physical assaults, psychological aggressions, sexual abuse, and controlling behavior. Over the years, IPV was thought to be associated with chronic psychological stress. Although Chinese women have been shown using a variety of strategies to appraise, as well as cope with their abuse experience, not much is known about the relationships among psychological stress, appraisal of IPV as a stressor, coping strategies and emotional states in abused Chinese women. This study aimed (a) to differentiate women’s cognitive appraisal of IPV as a “threat” or a “challenge”; (b) to examine the relationship among women’s cognitive appraisals, coping strategies and emotional states; (c) to investigate the effect of cognitive appraisal and coping strategies on the relationship between IPV severity and emotional states. A cross-sectional, quantitative study was conducted. A total of 200 abused and 100 non-abused community-dwelling Chinese women aged 18 or above were recruited via poster advertisements in community centers and domestic violence support agencies in Hong Kong for this study. Participants were interviewed using a questionnaire to elicit their violence experience, cognitive appraisal, coping strategies, psychosocial readiness, social stress, self-efficacy and emotional states. Among the abused women group, 23.3% and 34.7% of them appraised IPV as a “threat” and “challenge” respectively, while 11.4% reported the co-existence of “threat” and “challenge” appraisal. Although abused women used a variety of coping strategies to cope with partner’ abusive behavior, however, their efforts were perceived as somewhat helpful. A proposed model, conceptualized from the transactional model of stress and coping, the stress process model and the psychosocial readiness model, was tested using structural equation modeling. It revealed that violence severity had a significant impact on women’s adaptational outcomes, i.e. emotional states in terms of psychological symptoms and distress intensity, and self-efficacy. This relationship was significantly mediated by cognitive appraisal and coping strategies. The psychosocial readiness of abused women was also found as a crucial mediator in the relationship of violence severity and coping strategies. Besides, a significant indirect effect of social stress on the relationship between IPV severity and adaptational outcomes was observed. Furthermore, financial difficulties had a significant effect on cognitive appraisal of abused women. It indicated that an increase in financial difficulties therefore increased the threat appraisal of abused women and in turns affecting their coping strategies and adaptational outcomes. However, immigration status had no effect on cognitive appraisal, psychosocial readiness, coping strategies social stress and outcomes among Chinese abused women. This study identified the mediating effects of cognitive appraisal and coping strategies on abused women’s self-efficacy and emotional states. The findings of this study advanced the current knowledge of cognitive appraisal and coping in women survivors of IPV. Intervention focus on coping may be effective in buffering the violence-related psychological stress and, special attention shall be paid to the psychosocial readiness of abused Chinese women to facilitate the effectiveness of coping strategies. / published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing in Advanced Practice

published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Master / Master of Public Health

published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing in Advanced Practice

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

by Poon Wun San, Jecqueline. / Includes questionnaire in Chinese. / Thesis (M.S.W.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-141). / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.ii / ABSTRACT --- p.iv / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.vi / LIST OF TABLES --- p.ix / CHAPTER / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2. --- Literature Review --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- Concept of Marital Dissolution --- p.6 / Chapter 2.2 --- Concept of Sex-role Attitudes --- p.14 / Chapter 2.3 --- Concept of Psychological Well-being --- p.24 / Chapter 2.4 --- Psychological Well-being of People Experiencing Marital Dissolution --- p.28 / Chapter 2.5 --- Relationship between Sex-role Attitudes and Psychological Well-being of Women Experiencing Marital Dissolution --- p.31 / Chapter 2.6 --- Other Factors that Affect the Psychological Well-being of Women Experiencing Marital Dissolution --- p.34 / Chapter 2.7 --- Summary --- p.35 / Chapter 3. --- Conceptual Framework --- p.37 / Chapter 3.1 --- The Conceptual Definition of Major Variables --- p.37 / Chapter 3.2 --- Specification of Related Terms --- p.39 / Chapter 3.3 --- Interrelationships between Various Variables of the Research --- p.40 / Chapter 3.4 --- Hypotheses --- p.43 / Chapter 4. --- Research Methodology --- p.45 / Chapter 4.1 --- Research Design --- p.45 / Chapter 4.2 --- Sample --- p.45 / Chapter 4.3 --- Procedure of Data Collection --- p.46 / Chapter 4.4 --- Measuring Instruments --- p.47 / Chapter 4.5 --- Plan for Data Analysis --- p.50 / Chapter 4.6 --- Validity and Reliability of the Measuring Instruments --- p.51 / Chapter 4.7 --- Limitation of the Study --- p.54 / Chapter 5. --- Reports of Findings : Part I --- p.56 / Chapter 5.1 --- Personal Characteristics of Respondents --- p.56 / Chapter 5.2 --- Marriage and Family Background of Respondents --- p.68 / Chapter 5.3 --- Summary --- p.85 / Chapter 6. --- Reports of Findings : Part II --- p.88 / Chapter 6.1 --- Description of Respondents in Regard to Major Study Variables --- p.88 / Chapter 6.2 --- Test of Hypotheses --- p.99 / Chapter 6.3 --- Summary --- p.108 / Chapter 7. --- Summary and Conclusion --- p.111 / Chapter 7.1 --- Summary of Findings --- p.112 / Chapter 7.2 --- Implications of Findings --- p.116 / Chapter 7.3 --- Implications for Future Research --- p.126 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.128 / APPENDIX / Chapter A. --- Questionnaire (English Version) --- p.142 / Chapter B. --- Questionnaire (Chinese Version) --- p.154 / Chapter C. --- Item-total Statistics of Sex-role Attitudes --- p.165 / Chapter D. --- Item-total Statistics of Psychological Well-being --- p.167

by Phoebe Lai Chung Yin. / Thesis (M.S.W.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-120). / Acknowledgment / Abstract / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1-2 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Purpose of Study --- p.3-4 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Literature Review --- p.5-25 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Theoretical Framework --- p.26 -30 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Operational Definitions --- p.31 -33 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Research Design and Methodology --- p.34 -38 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Research Findings I --- p.39 -52 / Chapter Chapter 8 --- Result of Data Analysis --- p.53 -71 / Chapter Chapter 9 --- Conclusion and Practice Implications --- p.72 -86 / Appendix A Questionnaire (English version) --- p.87 -95 / Appendix B Questionnaire (Chinese version) --- p.96 -109 / Appendix C Reliability Measures of C-BDI --- p.110 -110 / References --- p.111 -120

Mak Hoi Yan Iris. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-82). / Abstracts in English and Chinese; questionnaire in Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.3 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Goals of this study --- p.16 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Personality constructs --- p.17 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Methodology --- p.28 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Statistical methods --- p.33 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Results --- p.36 / Chapter Chapter 8 --- Discussion --- p.68 / Chapter Chapter 9 --- Conclusion --- p.76 / References --- p.77 / Tables 1-11 --- p.83 / Appendix 1 / Appendix 2

遲敏瑜. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-89) / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Chi Minyu.