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
. 2021 Feb 25:9:599921.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.599921. eCollection 2021.

To Live, Not Only Survive-An Ongoing Endeavor: Resilience of Adult Swedish Women Abused as Children

Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir  1   2 , Jesper Löve  1 , Gunnel Hensing  1 , Åsa Källström  3
Affiliations

To Live, Not Only Survive-An Ongoing Endeavor: Resilience of Adult Swedish Women Abused as Children

Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: A significant proportion of individuals exposed to maltreatment in childhood adapt positively in adulthood despite the adversities, i.e., show resilience. Little is known about resources and processes related to adulthood that promote resilience. Since women are overrepresented as victims of intrafamilial violence, understanding resilience among adult women is important. Objective: To explore experiences of resilience among adult women who perceive well-being and well-functioning although being exposed to maltreatment during childhood. Participants and Setting: This study included 22 women with experiences of childhood maltreatment, mean age of 48 years, living in Sweden. Methods: Individual interviews were conducted and analyzed according to constructivist grounded theory. Results: The process of resilience was experienced as an ongoing endeavor to live, not only survive, an internal process that interacted with external processes involving social relations and conditions. This endeavor was built on four interrelated resources: establishing and maintaining command of life; employing personal resources; surrounding oneself with valuable people; and reaching acceptance. These worked together, not in a linear or chronological order, but in up and down ways, turns and straight lines (now and then), through the process from maltreatment to well-being. Conclusion: Resilience was found to rest on intrapersonal and interpersonal resources. Individual's inherent capabilities can be, depending on life circumstances and available resources, realized in a way that promote well-being and well-functioning despite severe adversities. Therefore, public health initiatives, social services, and policies should provide conditions that help women maltreated in childhood to live fully rather than merely to survive.

Keywords: adult women; childhood maltreatment; public health; qualitative; resilience; well-being.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The handling editor declared a shared affiliation with one of the authors HG at time of review.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptualization of women's experiences of processes of resilience in adulthood despite being exposed to maltreatment in childhood.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Gilbert R, Widom CS, Browne K, Fergusson D, Webb E, Janson S. Burden and consequences of child maltreatment in high-income countries. Lancet. (2009) 373:68–81. 10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61706-7 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kloppen K, Mæhle M, Öyvind K, Haugland S, Breivik K. Prevalence of intrafamilial child maltreatment in th Nordic countries: A Review. Child Abus Rev. (2015) 24:51–66. 10.1002/car - DOI
    1. Nilsson D, Dahlstöm Ö, Priebe G, Svedin CG. Polytraumatization in an adult national sample and its association with psychological distress and self-esteem. Brain Behav. (2015) 5:62–74. 10.1002/brb3.298 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Källström Å, Hellfeldt K, Howell KH, Miller-Graff LE, Graham-Bermann SA. Young adults victimized as children or adolescents: relationships between perpetrator patterns, poly-victimization, and mental health problems. J Interpers Violence. (2020) 35:2335–57. 10.1177/0886260517701452 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Jaffe PG, Wolfe DA, Wilson SK. Children of Battered Women. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications; (1990).

Publication types