Barriers to Help-Seeking for Older Women Who Experience Intimate Partner Violence: A Descriptive Model

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The paper describes a model of barriers to help-seeking (MBHS) for older women who experience domestic violence (DV). Design and Methods: Data were collected from 134 women ages 45 to 85 years in 21 focus groups. Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (ATLAS.ti) was used to organize transcript analysis and provided access to the quotations upon which codes, themes, relationship maps, and other elements of the analysis were constructed. Results: Twelve themes emerged that showed strong relationships with experience of DV and barriers to help-seeking concepts. The resulting model of barriers to help-seeking (MBHS) illustrates how identified internal and external factors interrelate with each other and with an abuser's behaviors to create help-seeking barriers. The model also reflects the determination that, for study participants, there was no discernable point where characteristics of the experience of DV ended and resistance to help-seeking began. Implications: Development of services specifically suitable to the needs and desires of older women who experience DV is vital. Professionals in all service segments must more fully understand the help-seeking barriers that older DV victims face. To this end, the research community is challenged to replace myths and stereotypes about the nature and prevalence of DV among older people with empirically derived knowledge.

KEYWORDS:

• Domestic violence
• elder abuse
• help-seeking barriers
• qualitative data
• elder immigrant victims

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ#2002-WG-BX-0100).

Notes

1. There were indeed services for the elderly available in the community. These data relate more to the knowledge of respondents than to the actual availability of services.

National Center on Elder Abuse. (1998). National Elder Abuse Incident Study: Final Report. Prepared by the National Center on Elder Abuse in collaboration with Westat, Inc. for the Administration of Children and Families and the Administration on Aging, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

National Research Council (2003). Elder Mistreatment: Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation in an Aging America. Panel to Review Risk and Prevalence of Elder Abuse and Neglect. R. J. Bonnie & R. B. Wallace (Eds.), Committee on National Statistics and Committee on Law and Justice, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.