Originally published here.

Aim: 

To  understand  coping  strategies  used  by women  experiencing  gender- based violence  and  living  in  Turkey. Coping  is a  cognitive  and  behavioural  strategy  that individuals  develop  to  manage stress,  generally  categorized  as emotion- focused  or problem- focused coping. Women exposed to gender- based violence develop various coping strategies to manage stress and its adverse mental and physical health effects.

Design:

Qualitative study using the phenomenological approach.Methods: Data were collected in Turkey by using the snowball technique (n = 17) be-tween  September  2019 and  September 2020.  The Clinical  Ethnographic Narrative Interview is the source of the qualitative data for this study. Data were coded manu-ally and utilized the RADAR technique.

Results:

Seventeen women aged 25– 40 were included in this analysis. Women stated that they were exposed to more than one type of gender- based violence according to their lived experiences. Analysis of the nature of coping strategies revealed five main themes. The themes were self- competence, separation from others/isolation, getting professional help, having faith and social support.

Conclusion:

Breaking the silence and listening to gender- based violence experiences from survivors' voices contribute significantly to literature. There was a dearth of re-search on  Turkish women's gender- based violence  survivors;  the  research intended to address that gap. The participants highlighted that they would like to receive more attention and felt relief in sharing their experiences.

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