Att hantera och överleva mäns våld: En kvalitativ textanalys av kvinnors självbiografier

Sammanfattning: Men’s violence against women has since 2002 been classified as a priority health issue by the World Health Organization (WHO). The aim of this study was to, based on seven autobiographies by abused women, research what coping strategies abused women use, as well as what leads them to leave the relationship. The method used for our research was a qualitative text analysis of autobiographies written by abused women. We used thematic analysis and applied Lundgren’s theory of the normalization process of violence, the coping theory by Lazarus and Folkman as well as Holmberg and Enander’s theory of exit processes for abused women. Our study found that abused women use multiple coping strategies to cope with their violent relationship, including adaptation, reduction of their feelings, resistance, and blaming themselves. The coping strategies depended mostly on the situation in which the women used them. There were four main reasons why the women decided to leave their abusive relationship, including the informal support system, the formal support system, the severity of the violence, and the women’s insights. These reasons were all based on the women’s will to survive the violence. In the material analyzed in this study, the women showed to have roughly similar experiences in coping with and leaving an abusive relationship. However, every situation and experience is unique.