Female students' attitudes on re-entering abusive relationships

Abstract

Women re-entering abusive relationships is an increasingly important issue. This study investigated female college students' attitudes on why women re-enter abusive relationships in hopes to gain a further understanding of possible reasons. It was hypothesized that the given variables: Lack of education, financial independence, abuse history, unrealistic optimism, remorse factor, and emotional attachment, would play a factor in whether or not one would return. Findings supported the hypothesis that the variables utilized were felt to be factors in women re-enter, except for optimistic bias. Implications for practitioners and for future researchers are that awareness needs to be focused more on this optimistic bias, encouraging women more directly by teaching them self awareness.