Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012:2012:738905.
doi: 10.1155/2012/738905. Epub 2012 Sep 2.

Rethinking social support and conflict: lessons from a study of women who have separated from abusive partners

Sepali Guruge  1 , Marilyn Ford-Gilboe, Joan Samuels-Dennis, Colleen Varcoe, Piotr Wilk, Judith Wuest
Affiliations

Rethinking social support and conflict: lessons from a study of women who have separated from abusive partners

Sepali Guruge et al. Nurs Res Pract. 2012.

Abstract

Relationships have both positive and negative dimensions, yet most research in the area of intimate partner violence (IPV) has focused on social support, and not on social conflict. Based on the data from 309 English-speaking Canadian women who experienced IPV in the past 3 years and were no longer living with the abuser, we tested four hypotheses examining the relationships among severity of past IPV and women's social support, social conflict, and health. We found that the severity of past IPV exerted direct negative effects on women's health. Similarly, both social support and social conflict directly influenced women's health. Social conflict, but not social support, mediated the relationships between IPV severity and health. Finally, social conflict moderated the relationships between social support and women's health, such that the positive effects of social support were attenuated in the presence of high levels of social conflict. These findings highlight that routine assessments of social support and social conflict and the use of strategies to help women enhance support and reduce conflict in their relationships are essential aspects of nursing care.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual model of hypothesized relationships among IPV severity, social support, social conflict and women's health.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Results of testing the double mediator model (N = 309).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Effects of social support on health for high and low social conflict groups (N = 309).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. World Health Organization. Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence: Report of Initial Results on Prevalence, Health Outcomes and Women's Responses. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO; 2005.
    1. Tjaden P, Thoennes N. Extent, Nature and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey. National Institute of Justice and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2000.
    1. Golding JM. Intimate partner violence as a risk factor for mental disorders: a meta-analysis. Journal of Family Violence. 1999;14(2):99–132.
    1. Campbell JC. Health consequences of intimate partner violence. The Lancet. 2002;359(9314):1331–1336. - PubMed
    1. Ellsberg M, Jansen HA, Heise L, Watts CH, Garcia-Moreno C. Intimate partner violence and women’s physical and mental health in the WHO multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence: an observational study. The Lancet. 2008;371(9619):1165–1172. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources