The influence of social constructions of family on abused women's help-seeking after domestic violence
- Authors: Rasool, Shahana
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Women abuse , Help-seeking , Marriage , Family , Socio-cultural norms
- Language: English
- Type: Journal article
- Identifier: http://ujcontent.uj.ac.za8080/10210/385874 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/17609 , uj:15904 , Citation: Rasool, S. 2015. The influence of social constructions of family on abused women's help-seeking after domestic violence. South African Review of Sociology, 46(4):24-38, DOI: 10.1080/21528586.2015.1100098
- Description: Abstract: Ideas about maintaining the ‘solidarity of the family’, in contrast to women’s interests, is starkly evident in domestic violence situations, where notions of maintaining the family have been intrinsic to women’s decisions to remain in abusive relationships. Through the narratives of 17 abused women this article will show how socio-cultural discourses that promote the maintenance of the family above women’s safety, by normalising abuse in marriage and expecting women to self-sacrifice, contributes to women’s reluctance to leave abusive relationships. Further notions of ‘forever after’ marraiges and making it work at all costs also contributed to limited help seeking in the interests of maintenaning the social institution of mariage. Informal networks insistence that women should endure abusive relationships, contribute to abused women feeling an overriding commitment to maintaining the family. As a result of these discourses and a lack of support from informal networks, women are reluctant to disclose abuse to professionals, because seeking help for abuse implies that they are challenging socio-cultural norms that are entrenched at the level of the family and community. These findings emerged from an analysis of in-depth abuse history interviews conducted with women living in Johannesburg and Cape Town shelters. Abuse history interviews are similar to life histories but the interviews only focused on the periods and aspect of women’s lives when they experienced abuse. The aim of the study is to understand the personal, socio-cultural, structural and institutional factors that influenced help-seeking. This article will largely focus on the socio-cultural discourses that normalise domestic violence in order to preserve families. It is argued that socio-cultural norms which serve to perpetuate domestic violence in the name of families at the expense of women’s rights and safety, need to be challenged and the true impact of domestic violence on social life needs to be highlighted.
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Educational guidance for adolescents on lasting marital relationships
- Authors: Jila, Fikile Thuli Brenda
- Date: 2012-02-27
- Subjects: Marriage , Interpersonal relations in adolescence
- Type: Mini-Dissertation
- Identifier: uj:2069 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/4417
- Description: M.Ed.
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A question of marriage: of holy grails, ultimate meanings and untouchables
- Authors: Vos, Lizbe
- Date: 2008-11-14T14:20:17Z
- Subjects: Marriage
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:14698 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/1690
- Description: D.Litt. et Phil. , The study draws on a post-structural epistemology to interrogate ‘the truths’ of marriage, to foreground the interplay between the institution and society as the site of poetic and political struggle, and in particular psychology’s influence (on marriage) as a dominant knowledge system. This exploration of marriage shows marriage to be anything but ‘neutral’; it highlights marriage as the receptacle of societal, ideological struggle and in the process it highlights the tensions inherent to our subjectivity, in relation to marriage. It then asks the question as to how psychology and in particular marital (couple) therapy has played a role in the sedimentation of certain dominant stories of marriage and self (in relation to marriage), how it has reified marriage as the preferred form of heterosexual pair bonding and how it has reified ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ as dominant templates of being. The implicit question here concerns, one, the silencing and marginalization of alternative descriptions of marriage and, two, alternative ways of pair-bonding. The critical analysis of the knowledge/power interrelationship, as it plays out in the sphere of intersection between marriage and psychology, raises questions about the (ideological) accountability of the profession: for the kind of world we manufacture and maintain. The critical-affirmative paradigm of the thesis compels an engagement with ‘alternatives’ in response to the critical deconstruction of marriage. In the final analysis the study then moves into the arena of ‘challenges’. The latter constitutes an attempt to construct an agenda for action (on the level of psychological practice) that would allow for re-description and alternative descriptions of pair-bonding and self.
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The link between marital satisfaction and emotional intelligence
- Authors: Bricker, Dale
- Date: 2008-10-31T09:07:10Z
- Subjects: Marriage , Satisfaction , Emotional intelligence , Communication in marriage , Husband and wife
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:13878 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/1420
- Description: M.A. , This study set out to investigate the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and martial satisfaction. In the past several years, marriages appear to have undergone much change, moving towards a more egalitarian relationship. Intimacy and conflict resolution appear to play an important role in maintaining marital satisfaction. Skills involved in conflict resolution and intimacy also form part of a greater construct called Emotional Intelligence (EI). Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso (1998), describe a four branch ability model of EI. This model describes EI as the ability to be perceptive of ones own and others emotions, to manage and regulate ones emotions, to be able to effectively express ones emotions and lastly, the ability to use stored emotional information to deal with various situations. To ascertain levels of emotional intelligence and marital satisfaction the Schutte Self Report Inventory (SRI) and the Marital Satisfaction Inventory–Revised (MSI-R) was administered to a group of couples married for longer than one year (n = 61). MANCOVA’s and ANCOVA’s were administered to asses the relationship between EI and various sub-scales of marital satisfaction in the couples. The results showed that there was significant relationship between EI and certain aspects of marital satisfaction. The level of male EI was found to have a significant effect on the couples affective and problem solving communication. It also effected the level of female sexual satisfaction and the ability to cope with family history of distress. The female EI was found to be related to decreased levels of male aggression, a greater ability to deal with her family history of distress and role orientation. It was found that in most circumstances, the level of male EI was responsible for couple’s marital satisfaction. Further results indicate that the greater the gap between each partners level of EI, the greater their level of marital dissatisfaction. For future research, it may be beneficial to do a longitudinal study of the same nature using a larger sample. Measuring instruments that do not rely on self-report may produce other results. Finally, future studies may benefit by using a culturally diverse sample, to assess whether the finding may be generalised to all communities in South Africa.
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