Differences in Psychological Abuse Experienced By Older Minority Women

Background and Purpose: Although viewed as mainly an issue for younger women (Buchbinder & Winterstein, 2003), intimate partner violence (IPV)  can occur during all stages of a woman’s life (Fisher & Regan, 2006), and does exist in late life (Band-Winterstein & Eisikovits, 2009).

IPV research in older minority women, although sparse, suggests that older African American (AA) and Hispanic couples experience higher rates of IPV than White Non-Hispanic (WNH) couples (Field & Caetano, 2005). The reasons for this have not been established. One suggestion has been that higher rates of violence in certain racial/ethnic groups might relate to tolerance or acceptance of IPV (Sullivan, 1997). Cumulative adverse effect of psychological abuse on the emotional health of older women has been reported (Seff, Beaulaurier & Newman, 2008). Self-blame, powerlessness, hopelessness, the need to protect family, and the need to keep such abuse secret from others are also factors (Beaulaurier et al., 2005).

This study compared reactions to IPV and internalization of abusive behaviors in WNH women versus minority women.

 

Methods: Subjects were women (N=308), White Non-Hispanic = 124, Minority (Hispanic & AA) = 182, mean age = 68.3 ± 9.7, derived from a community sample described in Newman et al. (2013). Women were administered the Barriers to Help-Seeking Questionnaire (Beaulaurier, et al. 2005), a 46-item instrument with responses graded on a 4-point scale. Questions assessed perceived psychological abuse, feelings of powerlessness/submissiveness and tendency to use community services.

 

Questionnaire responses were subjected to principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation. The purpose was to identify factors that represented reactions to and internalization of abusive behaviors. A 3-factor solution accounting for 35% of the variance was selected on the basis of Scree plot criteria. The three factors loaded on perceived psychological abuse (PPA), feelings of powerlessness/submissiveness (FPS) and tendency to use community services (UCS) respectively. MANCOVA was performed with ethnicity status (WNH versus Minority) as the independent variable, age as a covariate, and the 3-factor scores as dependent variables.

Results: MANCOVA showed a difference in factor scores between WNH and minority groups (F=3.31, p= .02). Post hoc analysis revealed differences between groups for PPA and FPS but not for UCS (F=4.07, p= .045, and F=5.77, p= .016, respectively).

 

Conclusions and Implications: The factor analysis identified three dimensions of reactions to and internalization of abusive behaviors. Differences were found between WNH and minorities for perceived psychological abuse and feelings of powerlessness/submissiveness that account for 35% of the variance. Minorities perceived greater psychological abuse than WNH women. Minorities experienced more powerlessness than WNH women.

Findings suggest that psychological distress in minority women may result in displacement of anger onto partners. An increase in perception of psychological abuse as a result of generalization of experienced psychological abuse in a hostile environment may also result, as well as an increase in powerlessness/submissiveness among minorities as a result of generalization of feelings induced by a hostile environment.