The Involvement of Coping Mechanisms and Personality Structure in Counseling Women Victims of Domestic Abuse

Abstract

The current paper proposes to study more thoroughly the psycho-behavioral aspects of victims of domestic violence, broadening the knowledge on this subject with the purpose of facilitating and implementing in the future intervention programs and counseling for such cases. We will reach this goal by outlining a psychological profile of the women victims of domestic violence, according to their personality traits and their coping mechanisms. Therefore we have used two independent samples one composed of 30 women victims of domestic violence and another composed of 30 women non-victims that we have compared in terms of personality and coping mechanisms. The comparative results have shown that there is a statistically significant difference between the two groups not only in regards to their personality structure but also their coping mechanisms. The results obtained from this study will be useful in choosing REBT intervention programs (Rational Emotional Behavioral Therapy) for the women victims of domestic violence and also in implementing a EREC program (Rational emotional education) for their children, program that will target the development of cognitive and behavioral skills for these children.