Bronfenbrenner's theoretical framework adapted to women with disabilities experiencing intimate partner violence

Abstract

This chapter examines how Bronfenbrenner's applied bioecological Process-Person-Context-Time (PPCT) model of systems, integrated with current research on women with disabilities (WWDs) experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV), can help practitioners understand the dynamics of WWD leaving the abuse or maintaining the silence. Efforts to support WWD to safety and out of isolation will not be as effective unless practitioners carefully consider WWD's entire ecological context in terms of proximal processes such as bidirectional interactions with partners, children, and bystanders; personal demand, resource, and dispositional characteristics; contextual micro-, exo-, and macrosystem effects; and micro-, meso-, and macrotime influences.