Previous research has indicated that, despite the desire to end the violent relationship, battered women who have separated from their abusive partners experience feels of loss and mourning. Moreover, these women often also experience distress as they struggle to begin a new life, support themselves and their children, and fight to break free of abusive spouses who may continue to stalk and harass them. The authors examined the way in which post-separation stressors influenced the levels of battered women’s depression over a 2-year period. A total of 94 women were interviewed 6 times over a 2-year period following their exit from a battered women’s shelter. The authors hypothesized that (a) those women who experienced the most severe stressors following their exit from the shelter would report the highest levels of depression and (b) that the differences in levels of depression among the women exposed to the highest and lowest overall stressors would increase over the 2-year period. Results of bivariate analysis revealed that, consistent with the hypothesis, differences in levels of depression did increase over the 2-year period. Furthermore, women who experienced the greatest amount of violence and secondary stressors following their exit from the shelter also experienced higher levels of depression that either did not abate over time or grew worse during the 2-year period. The only variable found to have a decreasing impact on the levels of depression was social support. The results underscore the importance of bolstering the types of social support available to battered women who leave their abusive partners. Notes, references