Battered Black Women's Use of Religious Services and Spirituality for Assistance in Leaving Abusive Relationships

Abstract

Though there is substantial rationale to consider any association between spirituality and religion and intimate partner violence, research in this area is particularly lacking. African Americans are known to utilize religion and spirituality at significant rates to deal with adversity. Accordingly, any investigation of Black women's methods of contending with abusive relationships would be deficient if it did not include an examination of the women's use of ecclesiastical resources. Using 40 semistructured in-depth interviews with battered Black women, this article explores the participants' successes and discontent with religion and spirituality to escape abuse.