Poor women who are physically or sexually abused at
some point in their lives are less likely to maintain
stable intimate relationships, according to a new study of
more than 2,500 women by
sociologists from Johns Hopkins and Penn State
universities.
The women involved in the study said they want fair
treatment and companionship from their partners, just like
everybody does, the researchers said. Many of those who had
been abused as adults told ethnographers that they had
decided to forgo marriage and cohabiting relationships, at
least temporarily. Those who were sexually abused in
childhood were not as likely to avoid relationships
altogether; rather, they tended to engage in a series of
short-term transient relationships, many of them
abusive.
While there is no evidence that abuse rates have
increased, the number of women postponing intimate
relationships may be growing, said Andrew Cherlin, the
Griswold Professor of Public Policy at Johns Hopkins and
lead author of the report, "The Influence of Physical and
Sexual Abuse on Marriage and Cohabitation," which appears
in the Jan. 21 issue of American Sociological
Review.
"What's changed over the past few decades is the
social context of abuse," Cherlin said. "Women don't have
to stay with abusive men anymore because they have
alternatives to marriage."
The researchers, working in Boston, Chicago and San
Antonio as part of the long-term research project called
Welfare,
Children and Families: A Three-City Study, surveyed
a random sample of 2,402 Hispanic, African-American and
white women. Ethnographic research teams studied another
256 women in depth for several years, observing day-to-day
activities and conducting repeated interviews. All the
women studied were the primary caregivers of at least one
child.
Fifty-two percent of women in the random-sample survey
reported being physically or sexually abused during their
lives. Twenty-four percent said they were sexually abused
during childhood or adolescence. Forty-two percent of women
who had never been abused were married at the time of the
survey, compared to 22 percent of women who had ever been
abused. Of the 256 women studied in depth, one-sixth
— many of whom had been physically abused as adults
— said they were taking a timeout from intimate
relationships with men.
"Women's decision to take a timeout from such
relationships is an important one for policy-makers to
understand," said co-author Linda Burton, director of the
ethnographic component and Penn State professor of human
development and sociology. "These women are not saying they
will never enter intimate relationships again, but rather
they need recovery and reflection time from abuse they
experienced as adults to avoid entering a subsequent
abusive relationship."
Cherlin and Burton suggest that reducing levels of
sexual abuse and physical violence in families could
increase the number of healthy, stable, long-term unions.
They argue that current marriage-promotion policy debates
at the federal and state levels, which tend to blame
declining cultural values or unemployment for lower
marriage rates among the poor, should also focus on the
consequences of abuse.
Funding support came from the National Institute of
Child Health and Human Development, Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Administration on
Developmental Disabilities, Administration for Children and
Families, Social Security Administration, National
Institute of Mental Health, Boston Foundation, Annie E.
Casey Foundation, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, Lloyd A.
Fry Foundation, Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Henry J. Kaiser
Family Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Kronkosky
Charitable Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, David and
Lucile Packard Foundation and Woods Fund of Chicago.