Abstract:
The present study examined the relationship between risk and coping among survivors of
intimate partner violence assumed by Hamby and Gray-Little’s (2002) risk-based coping
model that posits that the most useful way to understand a battered woman’s choice in
coping strategies is to consider her personal context; specifically, her risk and resources.
Participants consisted of 142 female adults recruited from the Domestic Violence Intake
Center in Washington, D.C. Latent class analyses indicated that women in the sample
could be categorized into three groups that fit with Hamby and Gray-Little’s model.
Further analyses did not confirm the hypothesis that overall risk predicts specific type of
coping (private or public). The implications of the results on research and practice are
discussed.
KEY WORDS: intimate partner violence, coping, risk
