Domestic Violence in the Vietnamese Immigrant Community

Abstract

This study examines domestic violence in Vietnamese American families, focusing on changes in socioeconomic structure and culture, to identify factors associated with wife abuse. Husbands' patriarchal beliefs and dominant positions in the family and conflicts about changing norms and values between husbands and wives were found to be related to wife abuse. The study suggests that class, culture, gender, and immigration status could simultaneously affect women's experience of violence by husbands. For Vietnamese Americans, women's economic contributions could not reduce husbands' dominant positions and violence, but economic hardship could prevent women from leaving an abusive relationship. Traditional family values, beliefs in traditional female roles, and perceptions about racial discrimination could also prevent Vietnamese American women from relying on the formal system to cope with abuse.