The use of hope as a coping mechanism in abused women.

The purpose of this study was to identify how abused women use hope and to determine whether hope is a coping mechanism in their relationship with the abusers. Four focus group sessions were conducted with a sample of 24 women using a phenomenological methodology. The data analysis indicated that abused women maintain hope in four major dimensions: hope for change in their partner's behavior, hope for survival, hope as something to cling to, and hope for control of the situation. The subjects stated that hope was used as a coping mechanism to help them keep their sanity; but in this context, the subjects often saw hope as false or unreal. Thus some abused women used hope as a mechanism to attempt to resolve cognitive dissonance between their internal beliefs and the external reality of physical violence.