Termination of an Emotionally Abusive Relationship and Women with Social Resources: An Initial Exploration of a Social Problem

The prevalence of emotional abuse perpetuated against women with higher education, resources and support systems, is a social problem that has been overlooked in the social work literature. Little is known or documented about college educated women with social resources who experience abuse (Swift, 1997). The complexities behind the question of why some of these women stay in emotionally abusive relationships and others end them remains obscure (Burke, 2001; Crane & Constantino, 2003; Fiore-Lerner, 2000; Ladenburger, 1998) and research about women who have terminated emotionally abusive relationships is limited (Lachkar, 1998). No studies have examined the experiences of emotionally abused women who are not poor and who do decide to end abusive relationships (Weitzman, 2000).