Citation

Launius MH, Jensen BL. J. Fam. Violence 1987; 2(2): 151-162.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Lousiana State University, 70803 Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, 32816 Orlando, Florida, USA

Copyright

(Copyright © 1987, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF00977039

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The present study was designed to examine the interpersonal problem-solving skills of battered women, while controlling for the effects of depression and anxiety. Battered, Counseling, and Control women were administered an interpersonal problem-solving inventory and asked to generate as many behavioral options as possible for each problem and then to select the one option they would chose to use in the given situation. All options were rated for effectiveness by two blind raters. Subjects were also administered the BETA intelligence test, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form-Y. Analysis of variance found no significant differences between the groups for intelligence, but the Counseling women were significantly more depressed and anxious than the Battered or Control women. Analysis of covariance (using BDI and STAI scores as covariates) found that Battered women: (1) generated fewer total options, (2) generated fewer effective options, and (3) chose fewer effective options for use in the situation than both Counseling and Control women. These findings provide indirect support for a general problem-solving skills deficit in battered women and reinforce the importance of problem-solving skills training for battered women.