The Relationship Between Violence, Social Support, and Self-Blame in Battered Women

This study hypothesized that battered women compared with nonbattered women use more violence, receive lower levels of social support, and experience higher levels of self-blame. Also hypothesized is that these three variables are interrelated. A sample of 95 women constituted 3 groups: battered women, nonbattered women in counseling, and nonbattered, noncounseled women. The women completed the Conflict Tactics Scales, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and a 61-item self-blame scale. Results supported all of the major hypotheses and revealed that female-to-male violence in battered women is negatively related with level of perceived social support and positively linked with level of self-blame. The latter correlation rested primarily on the association between nonphysical CTS abuse items and self-blame measures. These findings help provide further specificity about battered women's perceived lack of social support and help to clarify reported inconsistencies about self-blame.