The Evolution of Intimate Partner Relationships when Men Become Non-Violent

Study Summary

Study Objectives

Study Summary:

Violence against women is a significant public health problem. Many believe that the best way for violence against women to end is for the abused woman to leave her partner. However, leaving does not necessarily end the violence, and most women prefer to sustain the relationship and work toward ending the abuse. Therefore, understanding how non-violence can be achieved within previously abusive relationships is an important area for research. Studies examining patterns of violence in couples who remain together suggest that, in some, violence can decrease and cease over time. Women’s actions sometimes lead to cessation of violence in relationships. Current research shows that men’s responses and societal sanctions determine the effectiveness of women’s efforts to end violence and improve their relationships. Knowledge of how men cease to be violent toward intimate partners has come from studying men court-mandated to attend batterer treatment programs. Success in treatment programs is primarily judged by cessation of violent behaviour with little attention to the intimate partner relationship. No qualitative studies have been conducted from the perspectives of men about how men who are not in specialized batterer treatment programs become non-abusive, or about how their relationships with their intimate partners change. Additionally, how evolution in the relationship is influenced by the process of change in men who become non-abusive and the actions of their partners is unknown.

The purpose of this qualitative feminist grounded theory research study is to develop a theoretical understanding of how intimate partner relationships evolve as men become non-abusive in abusive intimate partner relationships.

Study Objectives:

1. To generate a substantive theory to explain how intimate partner relationships evolve as previously abusive men become non-abusive toward their female partners;
    

2. To identify how men account for their change from being abusive to becoming non-abusive toward their female intimate partners;
    

3. To identify how abused women’s actions and responses to the abuser influence variation in the process of intimate relationship evolution;
    

4. To identify the situational and social conditions that influence variation in the process of relationship evolution when abusive men become non-abusive.

Forty men who indicate they have been non-abusive for at least 2 years in a formerly abusive relationship will be interviewed twice to learn how they began and stopped their abusive behaviour toward their partner, and how their relationship has evolved since they ceased being abusive. Interviews will be analysed using the constant comparative methods of grounded theory to generate an explanatory framework. The findings are expected to expand our understanding of the range of socially sanctioned options to address woman abuse and thus challenge the current design of batterer programs and existing services for women experiencing abuse from an intimate partner.