Editorial

Abstract

mental health resulting from the violence, the constraints imposed by service agencies and unwanted changes in women’s social and material conditions affected women’s ability to maintain separation from an abusive partner. Their overall model did predict returning to an abusive relationship (with the former or a new partner). The only individual predictors, however, were symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Nurses have an important role to play in working with systems – health, advocacy and criminal justice systems – to ensure that women have access to needed mental health care. The most common interventions for battered women around the world are emergency women’s shelters and justice systems services. McFarlane and her colleagues have reported on a recently begun 7 year study to assess how use of shelters vs use of the justice system to obtain a protective order affects the long-term safety and well-being of battered women and their children. Using data from the same study, Koci discusses the importance of marginality, or social and physical isolation. She found that, while women in both groups experienced significant marginalization, women using the shelter reported higher levels than women using the justice system. Minority women, however, were not more marginalized than other women. Bhandari and colleagues, using a mixed-methods design, examined social connectedness from a different angle – the social support from a mother or other caring adult for battered, pregnant women. Such support was associated with lower levels of perinatal depression than in women with a negative relationship with their mothers, and particular women with no positive adult relationships at all. The tremendous toll of perinatal depression on women’s health and lives is well-documented. Likewise, the authors note the impact of depression on women’s ability to parent. Assessment of abused women’s primary adult relationships and interventions to support those relationships need to be tested to see if these can address this important issue. This avenue offers promise as a relatively low-cost way to improve the lives of at least two generations experiencing the negative effects of violence. Pregnant women who have experienced rape earlier in their lives may not have their needs met by nurses and other providers during pregnancy. Munro argues, using a secondary data analysis, that these survivors should be carefully assessed for physical