This study was carried out to explore the meaning of abuse and the life coping process of elderly
women who experienced lifetime abuse through the individual, socio-cultural, and systemic approaches. The
in-depth interviews were performed with the eight elderly abused women who had consented to the
participation in the study. The grounded theory study suggested by Strauss and Corbin(1998) was used in
this study. Through the interviews, 86 meaningful concepts were derived and these concepts were then
classified into 31 subcategories and 13 categories. The core category of life coping process of the abused
elderly women was《bearing the shadow of violence-stricken life and accepting self-resignation as existence
style》, and the types of life coping process were『resignation over violence』,『frustration midway』, and
『enduring violence』. Based on the research result, implications of effective social work practice and the
need of elderly counseling and education were suggested for the abused elderly women.