Why did she do that? Issues of moral conflict in battered women's decision making

This qualitative research study was undertaken, in part, in an effort to develop an understanding of decisions experienced as moral conflicts by women who have experienced abuse by an intimate partner. Eighteen rural women who had been or were currently in an abusive relationship with a male partner participated in the study. An adaptation of the Real-Life Moral Conflict and Choice Interview (L. M. Brown, 1988) was used to gather and interpret the data. This method required each participant to describe a real life dilemma and her response to that dilemma. In this article the author discusses the types of decisions described by the women. The decisions are organized into 3 categories that emerged from the interview narratives: the decision to leave the abusive relationship, decisions that threaten sense of self, and decisions of resistance. The findings of this study make explicit some of the dimensions of moral conflict inherent in decisions battered women make. Explication of these moral conflict issues and the ways in which women seek to resolve them provide another avenue through which to understand a battered woman's life, a perspective not found in other studies.