Comparison of Abuse Experiences of Rural and Urban African American Women During Perinatal Period

A subsample of 12 African American women (6 urban and 6 rural) were selected from a larger longitudinal, randomized control trial, Domestic Violence Enhanced Home Visitation (DOVE-R01 900903 National Institute of Nursing Research [NINR]/National Institutes of Health [NIH]). 

All African American women were chosen to control for any racial- and/or race-related cultural differences that may exist among women across geographical areas. The experiences of abuse during the perinatal period are drawn from in-depth interviews conducted at five points in time during pregnancy and the post-partum period. 

The analysis describes three major themes that highlight the similarities and differences among rural and urban women. The main themes found were (1) types of abuse, (2) location of abuse, and (3) response to abuse. In addition, two sub-themes (a) defiance and compliance and (b) role of children were also identified. 

Implications for universal screening for women of reproductive age, safer gun laws, and the need for further research are discussed.

...Most urban women reported continuing violence at 24 months. An urban woman reports the following at 24-month interview:

And then he started screaming and hollering in my face, and baby [XX] started crying, and I’m like, “that’s why I don’t want you around them and stuff like that,” … he just choked me. He like grabbed my neck. He like scooped up and grabbed my neck, squeezed it, and kind of lifted me up a little bit, but my feet didn’t come off the ground or anything. (Shanice)

If rural women left their abusive partners and started a new relationship, they were more likely to ensure that the new relationships were non-abusive. If they saw red flags of abusers controlling their lives, they left before the abuse actually began. The following quote by a rural woman explains that:

… he (new partner) constantly wanted to know where I was at all the time … he rung my phone off the hook … And then he, kind of like disrespected me, … put me down and stuff … I was just beginning to feel miserable; and … I didn’t want to feel that way, so, that’s why I had to break up with him, because I didn’t want to go back to those feelings of worthlessness or, … having one suspicion after another … and I couldn’t take another person lying to me or playing mind games, accuse me of things I’m not even doing, so. I mean I just couldn’t take it anymore so. (Kiera)

For both groups, violence during pregnancy was prevalent, but urban women reported more forms of severe violence at this time. Physical abuse changed in subsequent interviews to include more irresponsible and insensitive behavior by the abusers, especially in the rural setting. Rural women who engaged in a new relationship were quicker to recognize red flags of abuse and withdrew from the relationship before the situation became unmanageable...

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/fbxjkp

By:   Shreya Bhandari, PhD, MSW,1 Linda F. C. Bullock, PhD, RN, FAAN,2 Jeanita W. Richardson, PhD,2 Pamela Kimeto, PhD (c), RN,2 Jacquelyn C. Campbell, PhD, RN, FAAN,3 and Phyllis W. Sharps, PhD, RN, FAAN3

¹Wright State University, Dayton, OH, USA

²University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA

³Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

Corresponding Author: Shreya Bhandari, Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work, 271 Millett Hall, Wright State University, 3640 Colonel Glenn Hwy, Dayton, OH 45435-0001, USA., Email: ude.thgirw@iradnahb.ayerhs

  

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