RESILIENT RESPONSE TO BATTERING Ronald Jay Werner-Wilson Toni Schindler Zimmerman Dorothy Whalen ABSTRACT: Spouse abuse remains an important social problem. Re- cent research has begun to explore resiliency in a variety of areas: Why, despite harsh life circumstances, do some people survive and later thrive after experiencing trauma? What are the processes associ- ated with a successful departure from abuse? The authors worked with a local shelter to identify three groups of women: (a) those currently at the shelter; (b) those who had been away from an abusive relationship for at least one year; and (c) those who were identified by shelter staff as having demonstrated a resilient response to battering, and compared experiences and recommendations between groups and discuss clinical and service implications. KEY WORDS: battering; family violence; resiliency. In recent years, the topic of family violence has received a great deal of attention from psychologists, sociologists, criminologists, and family therapists alike. Despite this attention, spouse abuse has been and still remains an important social problem in this country. For example, Gelles and Straus (1989) found that roughly 1 in 6 couples engage in some form of physical assault each year. Other figures esti- mate that somewhere between 50% and 60% of American couples have Ronald Jay Werner-Wilson, PhD, is Assistant Professor, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. Toni Schindler Zimmerman, PhD, is Associate Professor and Marriage and Family Therapy Program Director, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Colorado State Uni- versity. Dorothy Whalen, MS, is in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Colorado State University. Reprint requests should be sent to Ronald Jay Werner-Wilson, PhD, Iowa State University, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, 1322 Elm Hall, Suite 1101, Ames, IA 50011-1120. (e-mail: rwwilson @iastate.edu). Contemporary Family Therapy 22(2), June 2000  2000 Human Sciences Press, Inc. 161