Carr, Olivia (2024) A Qualitative Study of Women’s Long-Term Experience of Trauma More Than Ten Years After Exiting Domestic Abuse. PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
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2026-Olivia Carr PhD Thesis.pdf
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Abstract
Coercive control is a global phenomenon that has a serious impact on victims’ mental,
physical, sexual, and financial wellbeing. The aim of this study was to explore
qualitatively the long-term impacts on women who had left coercive control
relationships more than ten years previously. It was carried out to extend the empirical
understanding about the ongoing role coercive control continues to have in women’s
lives years after they exited those relationships and thereby open the possibilities for
policy and procedural changes to prevent long-term harm. Initially a review of the
literature demonstrated that this specific area had hitherto received scant attention.
Initially this entailed a review coercive control through a feminist and trauma focused
lens to support the study of coercive control in both the private and the public domains
and the impact of the dominant hegemonies through a feminist analysis of patriarchy.
Ethical approval was acquired and a loosely-structured interview schedule was used
for in-depth interviews with seven women who fitted the study criteria. This was
thematically explored in three phases: the relationship; breaking free and their current
lives. The key findings illustrate that the women who experienced coercive control
continue to live with the trauma they experienced with the perpetrators and that it
continues to significantly affect the women’s lives physically, psychologically and
financially. Furthermore, it emerged that the effects of their help-seeking encounters
within the public domain, especially within the judicial and financial sectors,
reactivated and exacerbated the traumas they experienced within the private sphere.
Moreover, they indicated that in their experience public discourse pertaining to
coercive control continues to blame and shame the victim resulting in their only
sharing their experiences of the abuse they experienced with a small trusted group of
friends. It is evident that significant research has taken place leading to substantial
policies in relation to coercive control. However, this study demonstrates that it is
imperative that hegemonic patriarchal discourse that the participants encountered be
addressed for victims of coercive control, and women in general, to ensure a safe
egalitarian society.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
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Keywords: | Qualitative Study; Long-Term Experience of Trauma; Domestic Abuse; |
Academic Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Applied Social Studies |
Item ID: | 20075 |
Depositing User: | IR eTheses |
Date Deposited: | 27 Jun 2025 13:05 |
URI: | https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/20075 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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