A comparative study of battered women and their children in Italy and the United States

This is a comparative study of 82 battered women with children who sought counseling in Italy and the United States. Italian women who contacted the telephone hotline for wife abuse in Rome and Anglo and Mexican women staying at battered women's shelters in the southwestern United States were interviewed about relationship violence, social support and extended family, potential risk factors for their partners' violence (drinking, unemployment), their own, and their children's mental heath. Battered women in Italy were more likely to be married to their abusers and to have endured more years of violence than women in the United States. Descriptions of violence in the home were similar in frequency and severity across groups, although fewer Italian women (30%) reported sexual abuse from their partners than either Hispanic or Anglo American women (more than 70%). Drinking was strongly associated with domestic violence in the United States, but not in Italy. Women and children showed elevated psychological symptoms. Across ethnic groups, the average child exposed to marital violence was within the clinical range according to the Child Behavior Checklist, although Mexican children showed slightly fewer overall symptoms. Italian children were less likely to display conduct problems than American children of any ethnic origin. Although there are few differences in the impact of abuse, the catalysts and family circumstances appear different across cultures.