The 137 women who participated in the study had exited a domestic violence shelter program located in a mid-sized Midwestern city. Interviews with the women used instruments that assessed women's experiences of abuse, their relationship with their assailant, reactions from family and friends, and the women's psychological well-being (quality of life and depression). Ninety-one percent of the women reported having talked with family and/or friends about the violence they were experiencing. Negative reactions from family and friends were found to be strongly related to lower quality of life for women. When those who had negative reactions also offered the women a place to stay in their homes, the battered women's quality of life became even lower. As was the case with quality of life, negative reactions and an offer of a place to stay shared a certain amount of variance that affected women's depression. This report discusses some of the contextual and situational factors that apparently affected family and friends' reactions to the abused women. 6 tables and 37 references