Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Exploring women's experiences of abuse and communication within intimate heterosexual relationships in a low-income semi-rural community

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-189).

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gardiner, Desiree
Other Authors: Boonzaier, Floretta
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Psychology 2015
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867614167532306432
access_status_str Open Access
author Gardiner, Desiree
author2 Boonzaier, Floretta
author_browse Boonzaier, Floretta
Gardiner, Desiree
author_facet Boonzaier, Floretta
Gardiner, Desiree
author_sort Gardiner, Desiree
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-189).
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14742
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:47:44.531Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher Department of Psychology
publisherStr Department of Psychology
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14742 Exploring women's experiences of abuse and communication within intimate heterosexual relationships in a low-income semi-rural community Gardiner, Desiree Boonzaier, Floretta Sexual Abuse Psychology Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-189). This study is a qualitative exploration of women's experiences of abuse and communication within intimate relationships. How women remain in abusive relationship is explained by how they construct and give meaning to the relationship. Strategies for surviving and resisting the abuse, women's perceptions of the abuse; as well as how they construct communication in the relationship, are discussed. Interviews were conducted with 15 women, who volunteered to participate in this study and self-identified as being involved with a physically abusive partner. All the participants were from a particular low-income, semi-rural community in South Africa. Narrative analysis, with particular emphasis on language and discourse, was conducted on unstructured interviews regarding women's relationships with their partners. Interview topics included daily problems, the presence of drugs or alcohol, communication between partners, and their experiences and responses to violence. Women described the different types of abuse they experienced; how they made sense of it; and their attempts to prevent the abuse from occurring. Women also constructed themselves and their partners within particular gender identities and cultural frameworks. The socio-cultural context provided a filter through which women understood their experiences of abuse. Dominant male and female norms were both adopted and resisted by participants, and expressed when women spoke of their interaction and communication with their partners. 2015-11-08T05:07:41Z 2015-11-08T05:07:41Z 2008 Master Thesis Masters MSocSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14742 eng application/pdf Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Sexual Abuse
Psychology
Gardiner, Desiree
Exploring women's experiences of abuse and communication within intimate heterosexual relationships in a low-income semi-rural community
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Exploring women's experiences of abuse and communication within intimate heterosexual relationships in a low-income semi-rural community
title_full Exploring women's experiences of abuse and communication within intimate heterosexual relationships in a low-income semi-rural community
title_fullStr Exploring women's experiences of abuse and communication within intimate heterosexual relationships in a low-income semi-rural community
title_full_unstemmed Exploring women's experiences of abuse and communication within intimate heterosexual relationships in a low-income semi-rural community
title_short Exploring women's experiences of abuse and communication within intimate heterosexual relationships in a low-income semi-rural community
title_sort exploring women s experiences of abuse and communication within intimate heterosexual relationships in a low income semi rural community
topic Sexual Abuse
Psychology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14742
work_keys_str_mv AT gardinerdesiree exploringwomensexperiencesofabuseandcommunicationwithinintimateheterosexualrelationshipsinalowincomesemiruralcommunity