Abstract
Taking action among women in violent relationships appears to involve sudden changes and reversals after periods of building stress, suggesting that decision making is a “catastrophic” phenomenon. This study sought to determine whether readiness-to-change is best modeled as a cusp catastrophic (CCM) phenomenon among women in violent relationships. A total of 143 women who experienced violence in the previous month completed baseline and end-of-study interviews assessing her hope, coping strategies, social network, and readiness-for-action (seeking help, taking legal action, and leaving) concerning the violence. Daily assessments of his violent behavior, forgiveness sought and given, and her perceived need-for-action were collected via telephone Interactive Voice Response for 8 weeks. Using regression analysis, the impact of factor-analyzed asymmetry (violence burden) and bifurcation (hope and cope, support, forgiveness, and number of children) variables on the outcomes (readiness-for-help, legal action, and leaving) was modeled, comparing the CCM against linear models to determine which model accounts for the most variance in each outcome. Cusp catastrophe models for all three actions accounted for more variance than either linear model comparison, but violence burden was only relevant to readiness-for-help and different bifurcation variables were at work for each action. While forgiveness was an important bifurcation factor in readiness-for-help and number of children served as the bifurcation factor for readiness-for-legal-action, readiness-to-leave was more complex with both number of children and hope-and-cope as bifurcation factors. Not only should we expect sudden changes in readiness but efforts to facilitate decision making should focus on addressing the bifurcation factors that may distort her interpretation of reality.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of Interpersonal Violence |
| DOIs | |
| State | Accepted/In press - Mar 1 2017 |
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Keywords
- anything related to domestic violence
- battered women
- domestic violence
- intervention/treatment
- legal intervention
- perceptions of domestic violence
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Clinical Psychology
- Applied Psychology
Cite this
Is Readiness to Take Action Among Women in Violent Relationships a Catastrophic Phenomenon? / Katerndahl, David A; Burge, Sandra K.; Ferrer, Robert L; Becho, Johanna; Wood, Robert.
In: Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 01.03.2017.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Is Readiness to Take Action Among Women in Violent Relationships a Catastrophic Phenomenon?
AU - Katerndahl, David A
AU - Burge, Sandra K.
AU - Ferrer, Robert L
AU - Becho, Johanna
AU - Wood, Robert
PY - 2017/3/1
Y1 - 2017/3/1
N2 - Taking action among women in violent relationships appears to involve sudden changes and reversals after periods of building stress, suggesting that decision making is a “catastrophic” phenomenon. This study sought to determine whether readiness-to-change is best modeled as a cusp catastrophic (CCM) phenomenon among women in violent relationships. A total of 143 women who experienced violence in the previous month completed baseline and end-of-study interviews assessing her hope, coping strategies, social network, and readiness-for-action (seeking help, taking legal action, and leaving) concerning the violence. Daily assessments of his violent behavior, forgiveness sought and given, and her perceived need-for-action were collected via telephone Interactive Voice Response for 8 weeks. Using regression analysis, the impact of factor-analyzed asymmetry (violence burden) and bifurcation (hope and cope, support, forgiveness, and number of children) variables on the outcomes (readiness-for-help, legal action, and leaving) was modeled, comparing the CCM against linear models to determine which model accounts for the most variance in each outcome. Cusp catastrophe models for all three actions accounted for more variance than either linear model comparison, but violence burden was only relevant to readiness-for-help and different bifurcation variables were at work for each action. While forgiveness was an important bifurcation factor in readiness-for-help and number of children served as the bifurcation factor for readiness-for-legal-action, readiness-to-leave was more complex with both number of children and hope-and-cope as bifurcation factors. Not only should we expect sudden changes in readiness but efforts to facilitate decision making should focus on addressing the bifurcation factors that may distort her interpretation of reality.
AB - Taking action among women in violent relationships appears to involve sudden changes and reversals after periods of building stress, suggesting that decision making is a “catastrophic” phenomenon. This study sought to determine whether readiness-to-change is best modeled as a cusp catastrophic (CCM) phenomenon among women in violent relationships. A total of 143 women who experienced violence in the previous month completed baseline and end-of-study interviews assessing her hope, coping strategies, social network, and readiness-for-action (seeking help, taking legal action, and leaving) concerning the violence. Daily assessments of his violent behavior, forgiveness sought and given, and her perceived need-for-action were collected via telephone Interactive Voice Response for 8 weeks. Using regression analysis, the impact of factor-analyzed asymmetry (violence burden) and bifurcation (hope and cope, support, forgiveness, and number of children) variables on the outcomes (readiness-for-help, legal action, and leaving) was modeled, comparing the CCM against linear models to determine which model accounts for the most variance in each outcome. Cusp catastrophe models for all three actions accounted for more variance than either linear model comparison, but violence burden was only relevant to readiness-for-help and different bifurcation variables were at work for each action. While forgiveness was an important bifurcation factor in readiness-for-help and number of children served as the bifurcation factor for readiness-for-legal-action, readiness-to-leave was more complex with both number of children and hope-and-cope as bifurcation factors. Not only should we expect sudden changes in readiness but efforts to facilitate decision making should focus on addressing the bifurcation factors that may distort her interpretation of reality.
KW - anything related to domestic violence
KW - battered women
KW - domestic violence
KW - intervention/treatment
KW - legal intervention
KW - perceptions of domestic violence
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85042600214&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85042600214&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0886260517698280
DO - 10.1177/0886260517698280
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85042600214
JO - Journal of Interpersonal Violence
JF - Journal of Interpersonal Violence
SN - 0886-2605
ER -