Wen-Li Hou
Meiho University, Taiwan
Title: Predicting resilience in women survivors of intimate partner violence in Taiwan
Biography
Biography: Wen-Li Hou
Abstract
The purposes of this study were to examine factors that predicted resilience in women survivors of intimate partner violence in Taiwan. A cross-sectional, descriptive correlation design was adopted. A survey interview was used to collect data on women survivors of intimate partner violence recruited from two Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Centers and two Women Associations in southern Taiwan. The inclusion criteria were: (a) women had experienced physical, psychological or sexual abuse by their intimate partners; (b) women had been out of an abusive relationship for at least 1 year; and (c) women agreed to participate in this study. Fifty nine participants completed the structured questionnaires: the Demographic Questionnaire, Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire (TDQ), Resilience Scale (RS), and State Hope Scale (SHS) between December 2009 and September 2011. For this study, hope was measured as a goal driven behavior comprising two components: agency (the perception that one can reach his/her goals) and pathway (the perception that one can ï¬nd alternative routes to reach these goals should the need arise). Data were analyzed by Descriptive analysis, Pearson product–moment correlation and Stepwise Multiple Regression. The results showed that resilience has significant positive correlations with both hope (agency plus pathway) and religion, as well as is negatively correlated with depression, take medicine regularly, and major stressful event. The strongest predictors for resilience were pathway (R2 Change =.555) followed by major stressful event (R2 Change =.048) and agency (R2 Change =.035), with R2 of 0.638. Health professionals should enhance resilience on women survivors of intimate partner violence, which might increase the level of hope and further assistant them to manage their major stressful event. Hope is a potentially factor that could be utilized in intervention to help increase resilience on women survivors of intimate partner violence.