Rebuilding oneself: posttraumatic growth in women survivors of intimate partner violence

Abstract

Intimate partner violence against women is a widespread social issue, not only in Lithuania but also around the world. Despite the negative consequences of experiencing such traumatic events, there is evidence to suggest that some may experience positive changes referred as posttraumatic growth. While posttraumatic growth has been studied in various traumatic contexts, there has been little research on positive changes in women survivors of intimate partner violence. Domestic violence is characterized by specific dynamics, which indicates that knowledge gained from other traumatic contexts may not always be applicable to survivors of intimate partner violence. There fore, this dissertation systematically examines the theoretical model of posttraumatic growth in the context of intimate partner violence. Five conducted studies helped to uncover the prevalence rates of intimate partner violence against women in Lithuania and analyze women’s posttraumatic growth and its’ relationships with distress, resilience, centrality of event, social support and non support, intrusive and deliberate rumination, and selfblame as a coping mechanism. Also, violence related characteristics and their associations with posttraumatic growth were analyzed. The results of the dissertation highlight the factors contributing to posttraumatic growth in women survivors of intimate partner violence. These findings also help to confirm some of the theoretical assumptions of posttraumatic growth and reveal methodological and conceptual issues that require further investigation.