Ethnocultural influences on women''s experiences of and responses to intimate partner abuse

Research about ethnocultural influences on women's experience of and response to intimate partner violence is scarce, contributing to culturally incongruent processes that may deter some survivors from engaging with community systems. To fill this gap in the literature, we are proposing a mixed method study to examine the ways that cultural beliefs and contexts serve as a lens through which European-American, Hispanic-American, and Asian-American women experience and respond to intimate partner violence in their lives. Four specific research aims guide this study: 1. To understand how ethnocultural beliefs affect the nature and interpretation of co-occurring violence in women's lives. 2. To understand how ethnocultural beliefs affect abuse-related mental and physical health. 3. To understand how ethnocultural contexts influence strategic responses to violence. 4. To understand the linkages between women's experiences of violence, health outcomes, and willingness to engage with the criminal justice system. To achieve these aims, 300 adult, female participants will be recruited from a local coalition of Community Health Center member clinics. Women who respond affirmatively to screening questions regarding coercive control, physical violence, sexual violence, or stalking in intimate relationships will be invited to participate in a survey on "the impact of relationships on health." A random sample of 25 women from each cultural group will complete a qualitative interview in addition to the survey. Quantitative data analysis will include: 1) cluster analysis to uncover co-occurring patterns of abuse, consequences, and coping; 2) Analysis of variance to examine differences in both frequency and clustering of abuse, consequences, and strategic responses; and 3) a moderated-mediation regression to understand ethnic differences in the linkages between these variables. A grounded theory approach will be used to analyze all qualitative data. Specific techniques such as triangulation, interrater reliability, and negative case analysis will be used to increase the credibility of these analyses. ca/ncf