Suzanne C. Swan

Job-Related and Psychological Effects of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Empirical Evidence From Two Organizations

Previous evidence regarding the outcomes of sexual harassment in the workplace has come mainly from self-selected samples or analogue studies or those using inadequate measures. The sexual harassment experiences, coping responses, and job-related and psychological outcomes of 447 female private-sector employees and 300 female university employees were examined. Discriminant function analyses indicated that women who had not been harassed and women who had experienced low, moderate, and high frequencies of harassment could be distinguished on the basis of both job-related and psychological outcomes. These outcomes could not be attributed to negative affective disposition, attitudes toward harassment, or general job stress. Results suggest that relatively low-level but frequent types of sexual harassment can have significant negative consequences for working women.

A Review of Research on Women's Use of Violence With Male Intimate Partners

This article provides a review of research literature on women who use violence with intimate partners. The central purpose is to inform service providers in the military and civilian communities who work with domestically violent women. The major points of this review are as follows: (a) women’s violence usually occurs in the context of violence against them by their male partners; (b) in general, women and men perpetrate equivalent levels of physical and psychological aggression, but evidence suggests that men perpetrate sexual abuse, coercive control, and stalking more frequently than women and that women also are much more frequently injured during domestic violence incidents; (c) women and men are equally likely to initiate physical violence in relationships involving less serious “situational couple violence,” and in relationships in which serious and very violent “intimate terrorism” occurs, men are much more likely to be perpetrators and women victims; (d) women’s physical violence is more likely than men’s violence to be motivated by self-defense and fear, whereas men’s physical violence is more likely than women’s to be driven by control motives; (e) studies of couples in mutually violent relationships find more negative effects for women than for men; and (f) because of the many differences in behaviors and motivations between women’s and men’s violence, interventions based on male models of partner violence are likely not effective for many women.

The Development of a Theory of Women’s Use of Violence in Intimate Relationships

Reports have appeared in the popular press in recent years concluding that women are just as violent as men. These reports stem from acontextual survey studies comparing prevalence rates of women’s and men’s physical violence. The authors contend that the above conclusion is simplistic and misleading, and that a theoretical framework that embeds women’s violence in the context in which it occurs is sorely needed. This article proposes a model that includes women’s violence in the context of their victimization by male partners, motivations for violent behavior and how they cope with relationship problems, experiences of childhood trauma, and outcomes of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and substance use. The model is then examined within the context of gender, race, and class. The cultural context of domestic violence for African American and Latina women is reviewed. This literature reinforces the need to place women’s violence in a broader sociocultural context.

Behavioral and Psychological Differences Among Abused Women Who Use Violence in Intimate Relationships

This article examines behavioral and psychological differences among women who used violence in four types of relationships. Nearly all of the women experienced physical abuse from their male partners. Types were compared on the extent of childhood abuse experienced, use of avoidance coping, anger, motivations for using violence, injuries, psychological symptoms, and alcohol use. Women in the Victim type (the partner used more physical violence and coercion against her than she against him) and the Abused Aggressor type (the woman used more violence and coercion against the partner than he against her) had the poorest behavioral and psychological indices. Women in Mixed-Female Coercive relationships (the woman’s use as of coercion was equivalent to or greater than her partner, but the partner used as much or more violence) had the fewest difficulties. Scores for women in Mixed-Male Coercive relationships (the partner was more coercive than the woman, but the woman’s use of violence was equivalent to or greater than the partner’s) generally fell in between the other groups.

The relationship of work stressors, coping and social support to psychological symptoms among female secretarial employees

A conceptual framework is advanced that assumes that psychological symptoms emerge within multiple contexts, such as the workplace, and are influenced by the interplay of individual and situational risk and protective factors over time. This framework was utilized to examine the impact of work and work-family role stressors, coping, and work-related social support on psychological symptoms among 239 female, secretarial employees in the USA, using both cross-sectional and longitudinal structural equation models. Work stressors and avoidance coping were viewed as risk factors, and active coping and social support as protective factors. Work stressors contributed substantially to increased symptoms, primarily through a direct pathway in the cross-sectional model, but also indirectly to both Time 1 and Time 2 symptoms (4 months later) via pathways through active and avoidance coping. In both models, avoidance coping also predicted increased symptoms. Avoidance coping also served to partially mediate the relationship between work stressors and symptoms in the cross-sectional model, but not in the longitudinal model. Active coping was related to fewer psychological symptoms in both models, thereby reducing the negative effect of work stressors on symptoms. Likewise, work-related social support served an indirect protective function by contributing to lower levels of reported work stressors and greater use of active coping. Work stressors but not active coping mediated the relationship between social support and symptoms. Implications for future research and workplace interventions are discussed.

Prevalence of family violence in clients entering substance abuse treatment

The present study evaluated 105 clients who were assessed for substance-related problems and a history of domestic violence. A brief survey on family violence examined whether clients were adult victims, childhood victims, and/or perpetrators of physical violence. Results indicated that 37% of the sample reported that they experienced a family history of physical violence. A total of 22% reported being an adult victim of physical violence, 14% reported being a victim of childhood abuse, and 18% reported being a perpetrator of physical violence. There was a significant positive correlation between subtypes of family violence. Substance-using clients who were older reported more incidences of family violence. Results showed that substance-using clients with a history of family violence (SAFV+) tended to have more individual therapy sessions attended than substance-using clients without a history of family violence (SAFV-). The SAFV+ group was different from the SAFV- group in that they had significantly higher scores on the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores. The SAFV+ group also had significantly more self-reported and positive urine screens for cocaine use within the 2-month monitoring period. Additionally, substance-using clients with a history of childhood trauma had significantly more individual therapy sessions attended than clients without a history of childhood trauma. The group with a history of childhood trauma had significantly higher scores on the BDI. Findings indicate the importance of assessing family history of violence in substance abusers entering treatment, as this may have significant implications for treatment outcome.

Gender Symmetry, Sexism, and Intimate Partner Violence

This study of a predominantly Hispanic sample of 92 male and 140 female college students examines both gender symmetry in intimate partner violence (IPV) and inconsistent relationships found in previous studies between sexist attitudes and IPV. Results indicate that although comparable numbers of men and women perpetrate and are victimized in their relationships with intimate partners, the path models suggest that women’s violence tends to be in reaction to male violence, whereas men tend to initiate violence and then their partners respond with violence. Benevolent sexism was shown to have a protective effect against men’s violence toward partners. Findings highlight the importance of studying women’s violence not only in the context of men’s violence but also within a broader sociocultural context.

PRECURSORS AND CORRELATES OF WOMEN'S VIOLENCE: CHILD ABUSE TRAUMATIZATION, VICTIMIZATION OF WOMEN, AVOIDANCE COPING, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS

Path modeling assessed (a) the influence of child abuse traumatization on womens use of violence and their experiences of being victimized, (b) the association of these three variables to depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms, and (c) the indirect pathways from women using violence and their being victimized to psychological symptoms through avoidance coping. Among 108 primarily African American women recruited from the community who used violence with a male partner, womens use of violence, but not their experiences of being victimized, was predicted by child abuse traumatization. Womens use of violence did not directly or indirectly predict symptomatology. In contrast, child abuse traumatization and womens experiences of being victimized were predictive of both depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms, and being victimized also was related indirectly to depressive symptoms through avoidance coping.

Evaluation of the Green Dot Bystander Intervention to Reduce Interpersonal Violence Among College Students Across Three Campuses

Evidence suggests that interventions to engage bystanders in violence prevention increase bystander intentions and efficacy to intervene, yet the impact of such programs on violence remains unknown. This study compared rates of violence by type among undergraduate students attending a college campus with the Green Dot bystander intervention (n = 2,768) with students at two colleges without bystander programs (n = 4,258). Violent victimization rates were significantly (p < .01) lower among students attending the campus with Green Dot relative to the two comparison campuses. Violence perpetration rates were lower among males attending the intervention campus. Implications of these results for research and practice are discussed.

Motivation to change substance use among offenders of domestic violence

Substance use alone leads to increased rates of violence, reduction in adherence to treatment regimes, and other negative psychiatric sequelae. Given the high rates of co-occurring substance use and family violence-related problems, substance use was assessed among offenders of domestic violence who were mandated by court to attend anger management classes. Rates of substance dependence diagnoses ranged from 33 to 50%, while rates of substance abuse diagnoses ranged from 60 to 75%. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a motivational enhancement intervention on readiness to change substance use. Two anger management groups were targeted to assess substance use, violence, and motivation to change substance use behaviors. One group was randomly chosen to partake in a motivational enhancement intervention session. The comparison group was offered standard anger management classes. Forty-one clients were evaluated for substance abuse and dependence diagnosis using criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. A brief motivation to change survey, adapted from the Readiness to Change subscale of the Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness Scale was administered pre- and postsession. Results indicate that a motivational enhancement intervention is feasible and effective in increasing readiness to change substance use among domestic violence offenders. The results illustrate the importance of assessing and treating substance use among offenders of domestic violence, as this may be an important indicator for higher dropout rates and reoffenses among this population.