A metasynthesis of qualitative findings on the role of spirituality and religiosity among culturally diverse domestic violence survivors.

In this metasynthesis study, the author explores, extracts, and synthesizes themes from related qualitative studies on the role of spirituality and religiosity with culturally diverse domestic violence survivors. Using Noblit and Hare's metaethnographic strategy, the main themes and concepts from eight qualitative articles (six actual research studies, as three articles were written by the same author from the same data set) were reduced to nine themes. Themes include (a) strength and resilience, (b) tension stemming from religious definition of family, (c) tension stemming from religious definition of gender role expectations, (d) spiritual vacuum, (e) reconstruction, (f) recouping spirit and self, (g) new interpretations of submission, (h) forgiveness as healing, and (i) giving back. Implications for practitioners are discussed.