"I didn't fight for my life to be treated like this!": The relationship between the experience of cancer and intimate partner abuse.

Abstract

The current article seeks to further understanding of the high frequency of intimate partner abuse among cancer patients through qualitative analysis of semistructured interviews with 20 women and one man facing cancer and intimate partner abuse concurrently. Participants described a range of abusive and unsupportive behaviors by their intimate partners over the course of cancer treatment, which contributed to their reassessing and makinig changes in their relationships. Important factors in this process of change appear to be participants' increased focus on their own health, discovery of greater inner strength, and increased social support. Barriers to making changes in their relationships during their cancer treatment also were described. Participants who made significant changes in or left an abusive relationship usually did so after having recovered from cancer treatment. Implications of these findings for social workers in health care are discussed, as are directions for future research.