Date of Award

2013-01-01

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Teaching , Learning and Culture

Advisor(s)

Arturo Olivarez Jr.

Abstract

Overwhelming evidence shows that domestic violence is a very serious problem affecting women in the United States. Black et al. (2010) report that approximately 34 million women in the United States, or approximately 30%, have experienced some form of violence including rape, physical, violence, and/or stalking in their lifetimes. Twenty-two percent of the victims have experienced PTSD, 15% have been injured, and 8% have needed medical care. While these statistics show that domestic violence is a serious problem, there are virtually no statistics about the extent to which domestic violence is a barrier to the academic success of Latina immigrant women enrolled in educational programs in the United States.

Hence, for this Dissertation, the Muro's Education and Home Scale (MEHS) was developed, administered and validated to determine if Latina immigrant women enrolled in an Adult Basic Education program reported experiencing domestic violence, and if reported domestic violence correlated to GED test performance outcomes. Along with proposed factors of domestic violence, the relationship between academic performance outcomes and personal measures such as age, number of children, prior education, marital status, number of hours spent doing homework, number of hours working at home/outside were investigated.

Of the 126 women who responded to the scale, 98 indicated that they were in a relationship with a partner. The scale indicated the prevalence of domestic violence ranging from 38% for psychological violence to 5% for physical violence. Furthermore, 36% reported experiencing economic violence, and 10% reported sexual violence. The study did not show a correlation between domestic violence and student's GED test performance outcomes. However it indicated that number of hours spent doing homework significantly correlated with GED test performance. The scale also showed evidence of construct validity and internal consistency reliability.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

153 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Andres Muro

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