• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.44 no.9
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• pp.61-76
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the abuse experience from husbands among women who killed their husbands and the husbands' characteristics, and the women's own characteristics consisting of the emotional climate in the family of origin, self-esteem and social support. The major findings were as follow. First, the subjects were divided into two groups according to the level of wife abuse experience: non-abuse group and abuse group. Second, in terms of the husbands' characteristics which consisted of economic capacity and alcohol problem, there were statistically significant group differences between non-abuse and abuse groups. Third, the women in the abuse group, compared to those in the non-abuse group, had a tendency to perceive that they received maltreatment, physical punishment, and indifference and rejection from their family of origin. However, there was no significant difference between the non-abuse and abuse groups in emotional support the women received from their family. Fourth, as for the women's characteristics consisting of self-esteem and social support, the women of both groups showed no significant difference in self-esteem, while the women in the abuse group perceived that they received a level of social support relatively lower than those in the non-abuse group.