Coping Strategies of Intimate Partner Violence Survivors
A Hermeneutic Case Reconstruction Based on a Narrative Life History Interview
Abstract
This case study, grounded in the hermeneutic reconstruction of a narrative life history interview, explores the coping responses of a woman who experienced intimate partner violence. Drawing on empirical material from the author’s doctoral research, the study examines how the interviewee makes sense of her experiences and how her responses to abuse were shaped over time. The analysis focuses on the trajectory of her life story, with particular attention to the impact of violence on her biographical development, the shifting dynamics between emotion-focused and problem-focused coping strategies, key decision-making moments, and the social and structural conditions influencing them. The interview reveals early formative experiences and later constraining factors that influenced both the perception of violence and the capacity to leave an abusive relationship. Rather than aiming for generalizable conclusions, the study seeks to illuminate the complexity of coping and meaning-making through the lens of a single personal narrative.
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