Longitudinal Ethnography: Uncovering Domestic Abuse in Low-Income Women's Lives

Abstract

Many family science and human development scholars argue that it is critically important to examine women’s histories of physical and sexual abuse in studies of their life course. Yet, given the sensitivity of this topic and respondents’ tendency to withhold troubling information about themselves, it is difficult to gather accurate and detailed information about the prevalence and nature of these experiences in women’s lives (see Jouriles, McDonald, Norwood, & Ezell, 2001). For example, panel surveys of life course and family transitions, such as the National Survey of Families and Households and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, either do not include questions about abuse or they employ less than ideal measures that result in significant underreporting of these experiences. Moreover, studies such as the National Violence Against Women surveys are designed specifically to identify the prevalence of abuse, but they do not gather information about processes (e.g., nuanced behaviors and styles of communication) involved in women’s disclosures of abuse (Bachman & Saltzman, 1995; Finkelhor, 1994). Overall, most surveys rely on limited measures that fail to capture the full range of women’s subjective experiences of abuse, or they neglect to consider abuse as a phenomenon affecting the entire life course of women and their families (Macmillan, 2001; Williams, 2003). Such problems in measurement and assessment impede our understanding of abuse prevalence and the ways it shapes the life course of women, particularly low-income women who face heightened vulnerabilities from its effects (Leone, Johnson, Cohan, & Lloyd, 2004; Sokoloff & Dupont, 2005).

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