American Journal of Community Psychology, Vol. 36, Nos.

1/2, September 2005 (

C 2005)

DOI: 10.1007/s10464-005-6233-6

A Theoretical Framework for Understanding Help-Seeking

Processes Among Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence

Belle Liang,1,3 Lisa Goodman,1 Pratyusha Tummala-Narra,2 and Sarah Weintraub1

This paper suggests a conceptual framework for understanding the processes of help-seeking
among survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). A cognitive theory from general litera-
ture on help-seeking in “stigmatizing” situations suggests three relevant processes or stages of
seeking help in the IPV context: defining the problem, deciding to seek help, and selecting a
source of support. Individual, interpersonal, and sociocultural factors that influence decision-
making at each of these stages are discussed and illustrated with case examples.

KEY WORDS: intimate partner violence; social support; help-seeking; culture; domestic violence;
battered women.

INTRODUCTION important ways that violence is embedded within so-

Since the early 1970s when feminist advocates
first brought intimate partner violence (IPV) to pub-
lic notice, it has seized the attention of policy-makers,
advocates, and researchers. Legal and legislative
reforms have broadened the options for battered
women, while researchers have shed light on IPV’s
prevalence, causes, consequences, and potential so-
lutions.
As the knowledge base has expanded, concep-
tualizations of the problem have also shifted. Un-
til recently, the most common research approach to
IPV was to investigate the personal characteristics
of the perpetrator or the victim (see Koss et al.,
1994, for an overview). Although this kind of individ-
ual level approach had validity, it rendered invisible
the larger sociocultural context in which IPV occurs,
and implicitly conceptualized violence as stemming
from individual pathology or deviance, ignoring the
1 Department of Counseling, Developmental, and Educational
Psychology, Lynch School of Education, Boston College,
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
2 Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C.
3 To whom correspondence should be addressed at Department of
Counseling and Developmental Psychology, Lynch School of Ed-
ucation, Boston College, Campion 314, Chestnut Hill, MA 02461;
e-mail: liangbe@bc.edu.
cial contexts and cultures.
More contemporary research reflects an ecolog-
ical or contextual approach, with a growing body of
work examining the quantity, quality, and impact of
social support on IPV victims, and the ways in which
victims access that support (Astin, Lawrence, & Foy,
1993; Kemp, Rawlings, & Green, 1991; Sullivan,
Tan, Basta, Rumptz, & Davidson, 1992; Tan, Basta,
Sullivan, & Davidson, 1995). Although research
findings clearly indicate the importance of social
support in the lives and outcomes of IPV victims,
victims do not always ask for the support they need.
This paper explores individual, familial, eco-
nomic, and cultural influences on women’s decisions
to seek help and support in the face of violence.4 In
the first section we focus on research demonstrating
the critical role of social support—both informal and
formal—in improving the mental health and physical
4 Although women and men can be both perpetrators and victims
of violence, for the sake of simplicity we use the male pronoun
to refer to perpetrators and the feminine pronoun to refer to vic-
tims. It should also be noted that we use several terms to refer to
women who have experienced violence in intimate relationships.
We intend our use of the terms “battered women,” “IPV victim,”
and “IPV survivor” to portray these women as both victims and
survivors who actively resist the violence in their lives in order to
be safe.

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C 2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.
72
safety of battered women, as well as studies exam-
ining IPV victims’ help-seeking patterns. In the sec-
ond section we explore research on help-seeking and
“stigmatizing” problems in order to illuminate the in-
dividual, interpersonal, and sociocultural factors that
are involved in the process of help-seeking among
IPV victims. Finally, in the third section we discuss
implications of these ideas for research and practice.
THE ROLE OF SOCIAL SUPPORT IN IPV
Informal and formal social support have been
shown to improve battered women’s mental health,
willingness and ability to seek help from formal
sources, and subsequent capacity to stay safe. Friends
and relatives often provide women with infor-
mal supports (Gondolf & Fisher, 1988; Horton &
Johnson, 1993) in the forms of emotional sustenance
(e.g., advice, encouragement, or affirmation) and ma-
terial assistance (such as financial help, babysitting,
or a place to stay; Goodkind, Gillum, Bybee, &
Sullivan, 2003). Formal support may be provided by
the police, actors within the criminal justice system,
social service agency staff, medical services person-
nel, crisis hotline workers, mental health profession-
als, clergy members, domestic violence advocates,
and staff at battered women’s shelters (Bowker,
1988; Goodman, Dutton, Weinfurt, & Cook, 2003;
Donato & Bowker, 1984).
Social Support and Mental Health
General social support research has identified
an association between support—mainly from infor-
mal sources—and mental health functioning. For in-
stance, many studies have demonstrated that the size
of one’s informal social network, as well as the level
of perceived supportiveness of its members, predicts
psychological health (Cohen & Wills, 1985; Flannery,
1990; White, Richter, & Fry, 1992). This literature
suggests that those with close relationships that pro-
vide both psychological and material resources are in
better psychological health than those with fewer in-
formal supports (Cohen & Wills, 1985).
With regard to IPV in particular, a number
of studies have documented the relative dearth of
social support among battered women, as well as the
reluctance of IPV victims to access existing support
networks—both informal and formal (e.g., Barnett,
Martinez, & Keyson, 1996; Dunham & Senn, 2000).
Liang, Goodman, Tummala-Narra, and Weintraub
This is significant, considering that informal social
support has been identified as a key protective factor
that is associated with fewer mental health problems
among battered women (Astin et al., 1993; Carlson,
McNutt, Choi, & Rose, 2002; Kemp et al., 1991;
Mitchell & Hodson, 1983; Tan et al., 1995). Taken
together, these studies suggest that battered women
who receive emotional and tangible support may
be less susceptible to the deleterious psychological
impact of their partner’s abuse, including anxiety, de-
pression, suicide attempts, and posttraumatic stress
disorder. Victims’ perceptions of social support may
directly affect their mental health by moderating
their sense of well-being (Arias, Lyons, & Street,
1997) or by mediating the relationship between
abuse and mental health (Thompson et al., 2000).
Social Support and Physical Safety
Researchers have also shown that both informal
and formal social support serve to protect battered
women against ongoing violence, perhaps in part
by triggering battered women’s own coping efforts.
Goodman, Dutton, Weinfurt, and Vankos (in press)
found, for example, that even taking into account the
severity of prior violence and other key predictors of
ongoing abuse, the stronger battered women’s infor-
mal support networks were, the less likely they were
to experience violence over the course of a year. In-
terestingly, however, for the quarter of research par-
ticipants who had experienced the most severe vio-
lence, even informal social support did not diminish
the likelihood of ongoing violence. For these women,
reabuse was equally likely no matter their level of
social support. Thus, when violence reaches a cer-
tain level of severity, even the support of family and
friends may be insufficient to prevent it or stop it
from continuing.
The use of formal support has also been shown
to influence the physical safety of abuse survivors.
In an evaluation of the impact of intensive advocacy
services provided as battered women left a shelter,
Sullivan and Bybee (1999) found that women who
received these services were twice as likely to be free
of IPV in the subsequent 2 years compared to those
who did not receive the services. Similarly, a recent
study evaluating the impact of legal advocacy pro-
vided to battered women seeking civil protection or-
ders found that relative to control group participants,
those who received advocacy services were signifi-
cantly less likely to be reabused over the course of
Help-Seeking and IPV
6 weeks (Bell & Goodman, 2001). These studies pro-
vide strong support for the contributions of both in-
formal and formal social support to women’s physical
safety.
Despite the benefits of social support, however,
rather than relying on other people or outside agen-
cies, women appear to be most likely to use private
strategies, such as placating or resistance, to com-
bat IPV. This is significant, considering that IPV sur-
vivors also rate informal support strategies and many
formal support strategies as more helpful than pri-
vate strategies (Goodman et al., 2003).
In the following section, we apply general the-
ories of help-seeking in examining the nature and
context of battered women’s decision-making around
seeking help for IPV.
PROCESSES OF HELP-SEEKING
Although research findings have examined the
nature and extent of help-seeking behavior among
Fig. 1. A model of help-seeking and change.
73
IPV victims, a theory of help-seeking that provides a
framework for such findings has yet to be developed.
Thus, we draw from current, general models of help-
seeking in order to elucidate the process of help-
seeking among IPV survivors (Fox, Blank, Rovnyak,
& Barnett, 2001; Greenlay & Mullen, 1990; Pavuluri,
Luk, & McGee, 1996; Pescosolido, 1992; Srebnik,
Cauce, & Bayder, 1996). These models tend to fo-
cus on the individual help-seeker’s internal, cognitive
processes, and include three stages: problem recog-
nition and definition, the decision to seek help, and
the selection of a help provider. See model of help-
seeking in Fig. 1.
Although the process of defining a problem, de-
ciding whether to seek help, and choosing a support
provider is presented as distinct stages, this process
is by no means linear. Although it is true that a bat-
tered woman’s appraisal or definition of her situation
undoubtedly shapes her decisions around whether
and from whom to seek help, it is also true that the
helper she chooses will influence how she defines the
problem and whether she chooses to seek help again.
74
Thus, these stages together form a dialectical process,
with each informing the other in an ongoing feedback
loop. To capture the complexity of this interactive
process, double-headed arrows are placed between
each of the stages presented in Fig. 1.
It must also be noted that although our
theoretical model describes help-seeking among
IPV survivors in primarily cognitive terms, emotions
are linked to, and mediate between, cognitions
and intentional actions (Brandstadter, 1998). For
example, feelings of guilt and shame that may result
from a decision to seek help may deter a battered
woman from actually acting on her decision.
Moreover, these internal processes are themselves
influenced by interpersonal and sociocultural factors
such as the IPV survivor’s individual and relational
history and the economic, political, and cultural
context in which her life experiences are embedded.
Indeed, as Brandstadter (1998) argued, explanations
for intentional actions that center on the “inner”
influences of action (individual expectations, goals,
beliefs, etc.) without taking into account broader
contextual influences provide an ahistorical and
adynamic picture of action. Thus, interpersonal and
sociocultural factors are also depicted in Fig. 1.
Problem Definition and Appraisal
Individuals respond to problems in a variety
of ways depending upon how they define or label
those problems (Fox et al., 2001; Tsogia, Copello, &
Orford, 2001) and evaluate their severity (Greenlay
& Mullen, 1990). A therapist who defines her client’s
problem as depression, for example, will make rec-
ommendations that most likely make little sense to a
client who has defined that same problem as a spir-
itual crisis. However, scant research focuses on how
individuals evaluate and define their difficulties, and
how these definitions, in turn, influence their help-
seeking behavior. Instead, much of the help-seeking
literature frames particular problems a priori, assum-
ing that these definitions of problems are universal.
A recent review on help-seeking emphasized the im-
portance of moving beyond research that is limited to
professional assumptions of problem definition, and
exploring the processes of problem definition among
individuals in need (Broadhurst, 2003).
In particular, the definition of domestic violence
has varied considerably within the mental health and
legal fields, reflecting distinct viewpoints, and imply-
ing very different treatment and public health re-
Liang, Goodman, Tummala-Narra, and Weintraub
sponses (Walker, 1999), ranging from shelter and
counseling services to law enforcement and legal aid.
Given the range of definitions offered by profession-
als, the same discrepancies could be expected in and
across individuals who experience IPV. With few ex-
ceptions (e.g., Kearney, 2001; Lempert, 1997), how-
ever, researchers have most often focused on what
women in violent relationships do rather than how
they interpret their violent encounters, or how these
interpretations affect their process of help-seeking.
Moreover, as Lempert (1997) notes in her qualita-
tive study, much of the research on battered women’s
help-seeking has focused on formal support, primar-
ily help from police, medical agencies, and com-
munity shelters (Berk, Berk, Loseke, & Rauma,
1983; Berk, Berk, Newton, & Loseke, 1984; Berk &
Loseke, 1980–81; Bowker & Maurer, 1987; Edwards,
1987; Ferraro, 1987, 1989; Loseke, 1992; Schecter,
1982; Stark & Flitcraft, 1983, 1988). These narrow
foci limit our understanding of the processes of prob-
lem definition and how these processes may lead to
or inhibit a broad range of types of help-seeking
behavior.
Examining the ways in which abused women
come to interpret their abusive situations requires
that we recognize the overlapping influences of mul-
tiple factors. Below we discuss individual, relational,
and sociocultural influences on problem definition
for abused women.
Individual Influences on Defining IPV
Just as women’s characterizations of IPV
influence their strategies for combating the violence,
so too does their readiness to employ certain
strategies influence their characterizations. In other
words, victims’ definitions shift over time, depending
on how ready they are to make changes in their lives
and vice versa. Specifically, according to Prochanska,
DiClemente, and Norcross’ (1992) Transtheoretical
Model, a woman in the pre-contemplation stage
accepts the abuser’s definition of the situation,
minimizes the abuse by labeling it as an “aberrant”
event, or denies the severity of the event by
comparing herself to others with more serious
problems. Given these characterizations, it is likely
that this woman would not seek help (Haggerty &
Goodman, 2003). In the contemplation stage, women
experiencing the very same level of violence begin
to recognize the abuse as a problem and consider
pros and cons for taking action. Abused women in
Help-Seeking and IPV
the preparation stage stop thinking about the abuse
as their own fault or as trivial and begin to seek out
others for help in reconceptualizing and acting on
the problem. Where women lie along this continuum
is not only the result of internal cognitive processes,
however. Interpersonal and sociocultural factors also
significantly affect women’s definitions of IPV.
Interpersonal Influences on Defining IPV
Unlike other social relationships with more
limited or prescribed roles, relationships between
intimate partners include a wide range of contacts,
including eating, sleeping, co-parenting, playing,
working, making large and small decisions, and
sexual activity. The fluid, liberal, and intimate nature
of these interactions may make subtle violations
and abuses difficult to detect and harder still to
understand or define. Moreover, because the actual
nature, severity, and presence of violence in an
intimate relationship may be constantly shifting,
with abusers alternating between violence and loving
contrition, clarifying the relationship as abusive may
be difficult and confusing.
Further complicating problem definition for IPV
victims, cognitive distortions and dissonances can be
caused both by the abuser and by members of vic-
tims’ support networks. For example, in response
to verbal and physical abuse by intimate partners,
victims have been shown to doubt themselves and
cognitively reconstruct past violent episodes, refram-
ing and redefining their meanings (Lempert, 1997).
Moreover, when these victims disclosed their abuse
in attempts to make sense of and validate their in-
terpretations of their situations, they were often met
with shock and disbelief from friends and family.
This discounting of their stories and lack of valida-
tion challenged the victims’ perceptions and defini-
tions and further strengthened the abusive partner’s
definitions.
Sociocultural Influences on Defining IPV
An individuals’ definition of interpersonal vio-
lence is also situated in a social context that is shaped
by the interacting dimensions of gender, class, and
culture. With regard to the interaction between gen-
der and culture, women victimized by IPV perceive
the abuse within the context of particular social, re-
ligious, and cultural institutions that reinforce power
75
inequities between men and women (Connell, 1987).
As an extreme example, in certain cultures, a hus-
band is legally permitted to beat or kill his wife in
response to infidelity or other infractions to fam-
ily “honor” (Beyer, 1999; Vandello & Cohen, 2003).
Indeed, in some communities terms such as “do-
mestic violence” or “battering” do not even exist
(Ellsberg, Caldera, Herrera, Winkvist, & Kullgren,
1999; Horne, 1999; McWhirter, 1999). Less extreme,
but still pernicious, religious and social norms in
many communities uphold the view that IPV is a pri-
vate matter between intimate partners rather than
a crime for which the perpetrator should be held
legally responsible. It is therefore not difficult to un-
derstand why many women might have trouble rec-
ognizing intimate violence as a problem for which
help should be sought. Class or socioeconomic sta-
tus also shapes IPV victims’ understanding of the vi-
olence that they face. Women with more resources
often have more options for action available to them,
and are therefore freer to define certain situations
as unacceptable or intolerable. By contrast, women
living in poverty with fewer resources available may
be less free to conceptualize the problem as intol-
erable because of the unlikelihood that the prob-
lem with be solved. If the violence is indeed per-
ceived to be intolerable, a woman with no means to
escape the violent situation may find herself in an
untenable psychological situation that requires cre-
ative solutions. For example, homeless women who
need protection against dangerous men out on the
streets may “pay” their protectors with their own
bodies. When asked if these sexual interactions were
“unwanted” or “coerced” (that is, abusive), these
women were hard pressed to answer the question
(L. Goodman, personal communication, August 3,
2004). With very limited resources and few alterna-
tives available, it became difficult for these women to
appraise the situation as abusive, as that characteri-
zation would lead them to act in ways that felt impos-
sible (i.e., going without protection on the streets).
In sum, women’s interpretations of male domination
and violence are shaped by gender, culture, and so-
cial location in the hierarchies of class and race (e.g.,
Lamphere, Zavella, & Gozales, 1993).
The following case vignette illustrates ways in
which gender, class, culture, and other sociocultural
aspects of women’s experiences contribute to their
process of defining and appraising intimate partner
violence.
Yin is a 38-year-old woman who relocated with
her husband and two children from Thailand to the
76
United States. Both she and her husband experi-
enced a difficult adjustment to living in the United
States. Despite his attempts to secure a job in his
uncle’s business, Yin’s husband was unable to find
a job that fit with his interests and skills. He there-
fore worked as a custodian in a school, became in-
creasingly depressed, and began drinking alcohol ex-
cessively. Yin worked as a waitress in a restaurant,
whereas the children attended school. Yin and her
husband at times discussed possibly moving back to
Thailand, particularly when they notice people at
work or at their children’s school make derogatory
comments about their Asian accent and their immi-
gration status.
After about 1 year into their arrival to the
United States, Yin’s husband began to hit her and
verbally abuse her. The frequency of the abuse in-
creased with her husband’s alcohol abuse. The chil-
dren, over time, witnessed these incidents almost
routinely, and felt helpless to protect themselves and
their mother. Yin made several attempts to talk to
her husband about his behavior. However, he kept
none of his promises to stop hitting her. Yin thought
about leaving her husband, but worried about the fu-
ture of her status as an immigrant, and the ability of
her children to obtain a green card if she left him.
The idea that she could return to Thailand without
her husband also felt overwhelming, as she worried
about how she would “fit in” to her community in
Thailand as a single or divorced mother.
After a few months, Yin revealed the abuse to
her parents in Thailand. Although they expressed
their sadness and concern for her, they were not able
to think of ways to help her. She then spoke with
members of her husband’s family about the violence.
They responded to her by stating, “It is your duty to
take care of him. He is sick, and he needs your help.
Think about the children. They need their father to
get better.”
Eventually, constrained by practical difficulties,
and influenced by family, cultural, and gender-role
expectations, Yin came to see the abuse as the in-
evitable consequence of her husband’s stress and
culture shock—in other words, “not her husband’s
fault.” Rather than defining her situation as unac-
ceptable, she normalized her particular experience,
and defined it as her “cross to bear for the family’s
sake.”
Yin’s case illustrates how gender roles and cul-
tural beliefs influence women’s understandings of do-
mestic violence. Although Yin was exposed to main-
stream culture through her children’s school, her job,
Liang, Goodman, Tummala-Narra, and Weintraub
and television, her primary affective connections re-
mained with other Thai immigrants who tended to
uphold a set of traditional values related to gender.
For example, Yin’s belief that she was responsible
for maintaining family unity was tied to the broader
cultural value of collectivism, according to which in-
dividual needs are outweighed by the long-term ben-
efits of securing the integrity of the family unit in
the context of a new cultural context (Roland, 1996).
Yin’s central role in the family unit lent itself to
the notion of being “a good woman” or a “strong”
woman who is self-sacrificing (Ho, 1990; Root, 1996).
At the same time, her experiences of hostility from
mainstream society reified her identifications with
traditional gender role expectations. Given her gen-
der role identification within the context of her cul-
tural identification, it is not surprising that Yin un-
derstood IPV as her “cross to bear” and not as a
problem warranting intervention and further threat
to family integrity. It is worth noting that a woman
who has a different, more welcoming reception from,
and more consistent exposure to, a diverse group of
people in mainstream culture, may be more inclined
to alter her definition of her role in intimate relation-
ships, and relatedly, her appraisal of an abusive sit-
uation. Indeed, several studies have noted that level
of acculturation affects women’s definitions of inti-
mate partner violence and related help-seeking be-
havior (Lee & Au, 1998; West, Kantor, & Jasinski,
1998).
Other aspects of Yin’s sociocultural context,
such as her class and immigration status, guided her
conceptualization of the abuse by her husband. She
and her family had limited financial resources and
a pending status on her green card, both of which
contributed to her perception of the abuse and what
was possible to do about it. A lack of legal and eco-
nomic resources obviously exacerbates IPV victims’
sense of helplessness (Bui, 2003); and the predica-
ment of immigration status can foster a legal de-
pendency on the perpetrator that prevents women
from envisioning alternative courses of action—
a necessary precursor to defining the situation as
intolerable.
Decision to Seek Help
As noted previously, the decision of whether to
seek help stems from problem definition and continu-
ally shifts as women’s cognitive appraisal of their sit-
uation and external circumstances shift.
Help-Seeking and IPV
Individual Influences on Deciding
to Seek Help for IPV
The help-seeking literature (e.g., Cauce et al.,
2002) suggests two internal conditions that are
fundamental for seeking support: (1) recognizing a
problem as undesirable and (2) seeing the problem
as unlikely to go away without help from others.
Consistent with the first of these conditions, research
demonstrates a correlation between severity of
abuse and help-seeking among IPV survivors
(Coker, Derrick, Lumpkin, Aldrich, & Oldendick,
2000; Goodman et al., 2003). Further, a number
of qualitative and quantitative studies have given
rise to a stage model, whereby IPV survivors
progress from more private attempts to deal with
abuse (e.g., placating and resisting) to informal
support-seeking (e.g., from family and friends), and
as violence worsens (e.g., Brown, 1997; Goodman
et al., 2003; Haggerty & Goodman, 2003), to more
public help-seeking (e.g., from legal system or
community agencies). This may be particularly true
within many ethnic minority communities. Indeed, in
several studies regarding Asian women, participants
tended to report abuse incidents and seek help only
when the violence reached a severe or crisis level
(Abraham, 2000; Huisman, 1996).
Consistent with the second condition for seeking
support, a recognition that the problem is unlikely
to go away without help, battered women who in-
terpret their violent experiences as a consequence of
their own shortcomings might be more likely to deal
with the problem themselves and believe that they
have the power to effect change through their own
behavior. Likewise, in Lempert’s (1997) qualitative
study, battered women sought help only when they
regarded their own resources and alternatives as de-
pleted and when they had lost hope in their own abil-
ity to stop the violence. However, evaluating whether
abuse is likely to remit without seeking help can be
especially difficult in IPV situations due to the shift-
ing nature of the violence and the relationship, in-
cluding convincing promises to change by the abusive
partner following abuse episodes.
In addition to these two conditions, an individ-
ual’s style of relating to others is a key characteristic
that influences whether a battered woman decides
to seek help. In their qualitative study of 31 abused
women, Rose, Campbell, and Kub (2000) identified
two common themes that prevented women from
seeking support: a pattern of cautious relating
to others, and seeing the self as isolated. More
77
specifically, those women who chose not to seek
support from others often described feelings of
insecurity, ambivalence about reaching out for
help in new or current relationships, and patterns
of “closing up” around people. Although some
described experiences of forced isolation, women
more often defined themselves as loners, “hard to
get to know,” or uncomfortable with others. Indeed,
these individual characteristics may result from being
in abusive relationships as well as pose an obstacle to
leaving such relationships.
Interpersonal and Sociocultural Influences in
Deciding to Seek Help for IPV
Interpersonal and sociocultural influences such
as gender, class, and cultural factors also play a
powerful role in battered women’s decisions about
whether or not to seek help from friends, family, or
outside agencies. For example, Asian cultural tradi-
tions that emphasize family privacy, fear of divorce,
and gender roles that place men in superior social
standing may prevent many women from seeking
help outside the family, even when they define the
IPV as a problem.
Battered women’s desires to seek help may also
be influenced by their prior experiences—both di-
rect and indirect—with friends, family, and formal
services. Many women question the cultural sen-
sitivity of mainstream service providers. For ex-
ample, Latta and Goodman (in press) found that
Haitian women regarded the lack of culturally sen-
sitive shelters and the scarcity of shelters serv-
ing the Haitian community, in particular, as bar-
riers to their seeking help for IPV. These women
feared being misunderstood and marginalized by
formal agencies that seemed to exclude both help-
providers and help-seekers from the Haitian commu-
nity. Fraser, McNutt, Clark, Williams-Muhammed,
and Lee (2002) similarly noted that although shel-
ters in the United States have become more diverse,
many African American women seeking help con-
tinue to ask themselves “If I go outside my commu-
nity, will I be the only Black person there?” (p. 364).
Significantly influencing women’s likelihood
of seeking formal support, many abused women
have heard about or experienced negative police re-
sponses, including failure to arrest the batterer; mis-
taken identification of victim as batterer; the victim
not listened to or the situation trivialized; and race,
socioeconomic status, and homophobic stereotyping
78
(Bennett, Goodman, & Dutton, 1999; Wolf, Ly,
Hobart, & Kernic, 2003). Criminal justice responses
to IPV have, at times, been regarded as similarly
ineffective and even harmful. For example, while do-
mestic violence prosecution policies (e.g., “no drop”
policy) take into account offender accountability in
the short-term, the victim is not protected from abuse
in the long-term (Epstein, Bell, & Goodman, 2003).
Poor access to existing services, due to class or
cultural barriers, also contributes to some women’s
reluctance to seek help. For immigrant women,
for example, low social class and economic and
cultural isolation often inhibit their efforts to seek
help. Having lost social status and power, access
to financial resources, and the support of extended
family and friends who have been left behind in
countries of origin, immigrant women may be
financially and emotionally dependent on their
partners, and thus unable to escape from abusive
situations even to ask for help. Moreover, because of
language barriers and lack of education, immigrant
women may not be aware of and have trouble
communicating with available support services
(Huisman, 1996; Rasche, 1988). Similarly, problems
in accessing help for domestic violence are evident
in rural communities where individuals of various
backgrounds cope with poverty, high unemployment,
and substandard housing, and are often isolated from
shelters, public health, medical, and mental health
services (Krishnan, Hilbert, & VanLeeuwen, 2001).
Even when services are effective, abused women
must also consider potential costs of seeking help
that arise from their making the situation public, in-
cluding the loss of privacy, stigmatization, and threats
on their lives made by abusive partners (Fleury,
Sullivan, Bybee, & Davidson, 1998; Goodkind et al.,
2003; Lempert, 1997). Indeed, almost 90% of abused
women in one study reported reasons for not call-
ing the police, such as shame, embarrassment, and
“not wanting people to know”; 26% feared for their
physical safety or the physical safety of their children
(Fleury et al., 1998).
Bui’s (2003) study of abused Vietnamese Amer-
ican women highlights the complex interactions
among interpersonal and sociocultural factors, as
they influence women’s decisions to seek help for
IPV. Bui interviewed women from four different
Vietnamese communities located in different regions
of the United States and found that women were
less likely to seek help in areas lacking services
in the Vietnamese language. Also less likely to
seek help from mainstream agencies were women
Liang, Goodman, Tummala-Narra, and Weintraub
who perceived the local police as treating their
abusive partners unfairly due to racial prejudice.
Within the Vietnamese community, Amerasians and
women whose partners were from other racial or
ethnic groups tended not to seek help from other
Vietnamese individuals. Thus, understanding why
women do or do not choose to seek help from
mainstream agencies necessitates that we consider
the availability, quality, and cultural competence
of these services, as well as women’s previous
experiences with them.
An example of how sociocultural factors shape
women’s decisions around help-seeking is provided
in the following vignette.
Rezia is a 32-year-old married woman who was
born and raised in Bangladesh in an upper/middle-
class home and moved to the United Sates after she
was married. She spoke English fluently and felt a
strong sense of pride about “coming from an edu-
cated family.” After 4 years in the marriage, her hus-
band began to abuse her physically. Her 4-year-old
daughter witnessed arguments between Rezia and
her husband, and Rezia made several attempts to
protect her daughter from witnessing the physical
violence.
Rezia confided in her parents and her in-laws
that she was being hit, sometimes severely, by her
husband. Her parents encouraged her to leave the
marriage, but were unable to help her directly as they
lived in Bangladesh. Her in-laws, who lived in the
United States, told her that she should stay married,
and that this type of behavior was typical of most
marriages in their extended family. As Rezia’s con-
cerns about her daughter’s emotional well-being in-
creased over time. She grappled with her sense of
failure in the marriage, and at the same time, wanted
to secure her safety.
In desperation, she decided to seek help from
a shelter that served Asian American women. Af-
ter several months of meeting with a counselor at
the shelter, she decided to move to the shelter with
her daughter. On the third day of her stay at the
shelter, however, she decided to return to living with
her husband. She later sought psychotherapy to help
cope with her depressed mood and anxiety related
to the ongoing abuse. When asked about her de-
cision to leave the shelter, she stated, “I was hop-
ing that going to an Asian shelter would be a good
thing, but it was really meant for Cantonese and Viet-
namese women. They served pork for meals, and I
just couldn’t handle it. I didn’t want my daughter to
eat pork.” Rezia’s decision to leave was at least partly
Help-Seeking and IPV
due to her desire to preserve her religious tradition as
a Muslim woman, and the absence of services attuned
to these specific needs. Moreover, she admitted feel-
ing shame at the prospect of living in a shelter, having
previously come from a position of means as an up-
per/middle class woman in Bangladesh.
The case of Rezia illustrates some important
aspects of help-seeking among women who face
competing needs in establishing safety. That is,
many immigrant women have similar concerns with
protecting their personal relationships, and their cul-
tural belief systems—both of which are critical in the
process of establishing safety in their lives. Moreover,
Rezia’s case also highlights the scarcity of resources
that are culturally appropriate and sensitive to
immigrant and ethnic minority women. Finally, the
relevance of class is noted as shifts in socioeconomic
status following immigration can have lasting
impact on the individual’s sense of competence and
well-being.
Selection of a Help Provider
Selecting a help provider involves identifying a
source of support, either informal or formal, after
having recognized a problem and deciding to seek
help. Although finding help would seem to follow
these first two steps, the decision-making process
is seldom straightforward or linear. The process of
choosing a source of support may evoke multiple, in-
teracting cognitive and affective processes, and be in-
fluenced by individual, interpersonal, and sociocul-
tural factors. Indeed, research suggests that social
support will function as a stress buffer only if the type
of support that is provided matches the abuse sur-
vivor’s particular coping needs and situation (Cohen
& McKay, 1984; Cohen, Underwood, & Gottleib,
2000). Further, battered women may even avoid or
subvert help that fails to acknowledge the realities
specific to their lives (Baker, 1997). It is therefore not
surprising that there is a great deal of variability in
battered women’s choice of helper.
Individual Influences on Choosing Source
of Support for IPV
A woman’s appraisal of her abuse situation may
lead her to define her situation as a personal psy-
chological problem for which she needs emotional
comfort from a trusted friend; one that necessitates
79
counsel from a therapist; a spiritual battle for which
she needs counsel from a religious leader; or a crime
for which she needs legal intervention.
The type of support a woman chooses will also
be influenced by her coping and relational styles,
as well as by her cost–benefit analysis of the sit-
uation. The general literature on coping suggests
that individuals with problem-focused coping styles
seek solutions that actively manage specific prob-
lems; whereas, those with emotion-focused styles
seek solutions that help regulate their internal dis-
tress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Thus, women with
problem-focused coping styles may be more likely to
manage their situation by choosing a legal interven-
tion or escaping to the homes of family or friends.
Likewise, women with emotion-focused coping styles
may seek out social support (e.g., friend, therapist, or
religious leader) in order to obtain help regulating
their distress (Goodman et al., 2003).
An individual’s relational style may also influ-
ence whom she approaches for help. In Rose et al.’s
study (2000), whether a battered woman viewed
friends as sources of support was related to whether
she perceived herself as comfortable with others
and worthy of help. A woman’s weighing of the
costs and benefits of seeking help may also influ-
ence the source of help she chooses. The literature on
help-seeking offers a cognitive framework called the
“Health Belief Model” that stresses this cost–benefit
analysis (Broadhurst, 2003; Tucker, 1995). Battered
women’s decisions regarding which informal or for-
mal support source to approach may be determined
by this cognitive weighing of the relative benefits
and costs of each potential source of support, as well
as the ways in which they define and cope with the
problem.
Thus, when deciding whether to seek formal
support, a battered woman may consider the rela-
tive costs of loss of privacy and stigmatization in
seeking informal sources versus the costs of a loss
of control and the unsolicited removal of the abu-
sive partner from the home. For some, the potential
consequences of handing over control to the police
or other formal services may seem particularly costly
given their immigrant status, compromised psycho-
logical and economic resources, or other sources of
disempowerment. On the other hand in the case of
severe violence, if friends and family fail to protect
her from the abuser, a woman may decide that the
life and death costs of remaining silent or relying
solely on informal supports may exceed the risks of
seeking formal support.
80
Interpersonal Influences on Choosing
Source of Support
This cognitive process of cost–benefit analysis
is inevitably influenced by the survivor’s interper-
sonal interactions and relationships. For example,
Rose et al.’s (2000) qualitative interviews with IPV
victims revealed that few women spoke with their
parents about their abusive situations. Indeed, over
a third of the women had either witnessed or were
aware of their mothers being abused and thus viewed
their mothers’ problems or dependency needs to be
greater than their own. Further, none of the women
identified their fathers as someone with whom they
could speak about the abuse, and instead described
them as “cold,” “distant,” “stormy,” and in extreme
cases, as perpetrators of abuse in the family. Instead,
girlfriends were most often identified as a source of
emotional support and as most helpful.
In turn, the level of supportiveness and availabil-
ity of friends and family may influence a woman’s
ability or willingness to seek and use formal sup-
port. Women seeking help from the justice system,
for example, face a court process that is inevitably
draining, at the very least, as it forces women to tell
their stories numerous times, participate in numer-
ous proceedings, face their batterers repeatedly, and
expose themselves to the public eye (Bennett et al.,
1999; Epstein et al., 2003). During the course of their
participation in the justice system, battered women
may have to make decisions that will trigger enor-
mous life changes, such as whether to leave their
batterer, whether to request jail time for the bat-
terer, or how to handle visitation arrangements. They
may have to find babysitting for their children each
time they come to court, pay for complicated trans-
portation arrangements, and miss numerous days of
work. Given the challenges involved in seeking this
and other kinds of formal support, it seems likely
that only women with sufficient support from family
and friends would be emotionally and materially pre-
pared to go forward. Indeed, one recent study found
that for low-income victims seeking help from a ma-
jor urban criminal justice system, the extent of tangi-
ble support from family and friends was a major pre-
dictor of their likelihood of following through with
the prosecution of their abusive partners (Goodman,
Bennett, & Dutton, 1999). Other research findings
have similarly shown that the greater their access to
informal social support, the greater number of help-
seeking efforts battered women are likely to engage
in (Mitchell & Hodson, 1983). It seems, then, that the
Liang, Goodman, Tummala-Narra, and Weintraub
presence of informal support increases women’s like-
lihood of acting to end the violence by accessing for-
mal sources of support.
Sociocultural Influences on Choosing
Source of Support
In addition to interpersonal factors, the process
of choosing a help provider is also influenced by
sociocultural context, as is evidenced by the vary-
ing patterns of help-seeking within and across dif-
ferent ethnic groups. For example, in a comparative
study of help-seeking among South Asian, African
American, and Hispanic battered women; Yoshioka,
Gilbert, El-Bassel, and Baig-Amin (2003) found that
although most of the women in each group sought
help from their family network, nearly half of the
African American and Hispanic women in the study
sought help from a counselor, the police, or a lawyer;
but only a quarter of the South Asian women sought
help from these professionals. Moreover, fewer south
Asian women were encouraged by family members
to leave their partners.
The differences in help-seeking behaviors
among these groups might be related to cultural
differences in gender roles and notions of patri-
archy. Indeed, relatively extreme manifestations of
patriarchy such as honor killings and dowry death
are prevalent in south Asia (Johnson & Johnson,
2001), and research has shown that women with
strong patriarchal beliefs are less likely to approve of
seeking help from formal sources and more likely to
consider wife abuse a matter to be dealt with inside
the family (Ahmad, Riaz, Barata, & Stewart, 2004).
Feedback Loops Between Help-Seeking Stages
While considering the interplay among the
various individual, interpersonal, and sociocultural
factors that affect help-seeking behavior among bat-
tered women, it is worth noting that the ways
in which women define IPV and seek help for
IPV mutually influence each other. Women whose
definitions more closely match mainstream conceptu-
alizations of IPV may more readily seek help from in-
formal and formal supports. Conversely, even when
individual construals of IPV closely match main-
stream definitions, either negative or positive expe-
riences with formal and informal support seeking
may determine how a woman modifies her definition
Help-Seeking and IPV
of IPV and what she decides to do about it (e.g.,
whether to seek additional help or not). For instance,
a woman may choose to disclose her abuse to a
trusted clergy member who may, in turn, advise her
to remain in the abusive relationship. In this case,
help-seeking confirms and reifies the woman’s beliefs
that abuse should be tolerated and that she is obli-
gated to stay married to her abusive partner.
IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH
AND PRACTICE
By applying a theoretical framework for help-
seeking to IPV survivors, we have attempted to de-
scribe the influences on women’s decision-making at
each stage of help-seeking (problem definition, de-
ciding to seek help, and choosing help). In the next
section, we utilize this framework to make a series of
recommendations for research and practice.
Recommendations Related to Problem
Definition and Appraisal
Research
With regard to problem definition, we must at-
tempt to understand battered women’s experiences
from their own perspectives, using samples that in-
clude help-seekers and non-help-seekers in research
samples. Studies that rely only on help-seekers’ or
service users’ experiences will not adequately repre-
sent many other women’s experiences, in that prob-
lem definition is influenced by contact and interac-
tion with support sources (Pilgrim & Rogers, 1997).
Also, we must continue to conduct qualitative
studies to explore the process through which IPV sur-
vivors appraise and arrive at definitions for their abu-
sive situations. Such studies may explore process of
definition in varying states of readiness for change
(i.e., pre-contemplation, contemplation, and prepa-
ration states).
Practice
It is also important that potential helpers—both
informal and formal—work with abused women to
address the problem as these women define it, rather
than as the helpers define it. For instance, with
Haitian women who do not regard the abuse as the
81
core problem in their family, helpers might attend to
parenting challenges that are related to the abuse.
We also encourage helpers to view the experi-
ence of domestic violence not as a unitary construct,
but as a complex phenomenon that is subjectively
experienced by each woman and thus affected by
distinct histories and values. For example, for some
women, IPV may be an out and out violation of the
self, with the only possible outcome being separation
and punishment of the abuser. For other women, IPV
may be perceived as the result of stress caused by
poverty, and thus the idea of leaving their partners
may be unthinkable and further cause for stress (and
continued abuse).
Decision to Seek Help
Research
Future studies should evaluate the concept of
negative support among battered women. For exam-
ple, friends and family may inhibit a woman from
leaving or accessing formal support resources. A
woman may choose not to seek help due to the fi-
nancial support offered by the abuser himself. Or a
woman may choose not to seek help from the jus-
tice system following an assault, because she is un-
sure whether the batterer will be jailed, and therefore
fears retaliation. In any case, the provision of sup-
port and the process of help-seeking should not be as-
sumed a universally positive experience, as it can be
a source of danger, conflict, rejection, and criticism.
Practice
For all these reasons, it is important that helpers
refrain from judging battered women for refusing
to seek formal help. Indeed, in some cases such re-
fusals are informed, rational decisions. Thus, helpers
should be encouraged to understand women’s deci-
sions and help-seeking behavior within the context of
their ongoing struggle to free themselves from harm.
Selection of Type of Support
Research
Research related to the selection of type of sup-
port among IPV survivors should address both the
pattern of help-seeking from formal and informal
82
supports, as well as the impact on women’s lives of
seeking these supports. It is critical that we under-
stand the complex decision-making process around
choosing a particular form of help and its success in
helping women cope with IPV in order to make con-
clusions about the relevance of different types of sup-
port in women’s lives.
Practice
There is a need for more woman-defined rather
than service-defined support services that are more
flexible and adaptive in both meeting women’s real
needs and expanding the range of choices for women
seeking support (Davies, Lyons, & Monti-Catania,
1998). For example, because most battered women
who seek help do so through informal sources, it
would be helpful if information related to IPV, its
emotional and physical consequences, and access to
formal supports were disseminated to community
groups, religious institutions, adult education pro-
grams, and self-help groups. Alternatively, a trusted,
credible help provider may bridge the gap between
informal and formal forms of support by serving as
a personal advocate or mentor for a battered woman
as she navigates formal services, such as the criminal
justice system or battered women’s shelters.
It is also important that women-defined sup-
port services focus on battered women’s long-term
social support needs, rather than merely crisis-
oriented needs. Moreover, because women’s needs
may evolve over time, the type of support provided
should be timed appropriately. For example, some
battered women may first need tangible support and
crisis intervention such as a place to stay, help with
federal benefits, and information about options with
the court system, such as “no drop” policy and pos-
sibility of deferring prosecution. This concrete sup-
port may be necessary before women are in the po-
sition to seek counseling, legal intervention, or other
types of formal help that will enable them to change
the abusive relationship. In any case, it is critical that
all types of help-providers, including those in men-
tal health care, the legal system, and victim advocacy,
receive cultural competence training in order to en-
hance the fit and efficacy of their interventions.
CONCLUSION
In sum, we have presented a conceptual frame-
work for examining the processes of help-seeking
Liang, Goodman, Tummala-Narra, and Weintraub
among diverse survivors of intimate partner vio-
lence. This framework involves three processes or
stages of seeking help in the IPV context (defin-
ing the problem, deciding to seek help, and select-
ing a source of support). Analysis of this frame-
work is useful in highlighting various implications for
IPV research and practice. Namely, help-seeking is
a multilayered experience that varies depending on
a broad range of individual, interpersonal, and so-
ciocultural factors, including individual trauma his-
tories, coercion and intimidation by an abusive part-
ner, identification with cultural and religious groups,
access to economic resources, perceptions of and
exposure to mainstream formal supports, access to
informal supports, and general beliefs about help-
seeking. Thus, qualitative research and a client-
centered intervention approaches are needed to
stretch our understanding beyond generic, profes-
sional conceptualizations of help-seeking—toward
models that more accurately capture the diverse ex-
periences of battered women in defining IPV, their
decisions to seek help, and the types of help they
choose.
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