Psychosocial barriers to, and enablers of, intimate partner violence disclosure among Asian-American immigrant women

Abstract

Although Asian women immigrants to the USA rarely disclose intimate partner violence, local research indicates that among them domestic abuse is prevalent. This study aimed to determine the main psychosocial barriers and enablers to disclosure among Asian-American women in California, and whether barriers outweighed benefits. We used a novel qualitative methodology of indirect and direct questioning with sixty married women from four ethnicities (Korean, Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese). Overall, barriers to disclosure were more compelling and tangible than enablers, particularly among Mandarin Chinese and Korean speakers. Five main barriers were found: victim-blaming, beliefs in female inferiority and male dominance, familial shame, individual shame and fear of undesirable consequences. Only extreme violence and the need to protect children from harm were seen as warranting disclosure. As a result, health and other providers’ encouragement of disclosure is unlikely to be sufficient to achieve behavioural change. Abused Asian immigrant women need anonymous ways of obtaining professional counselling, information and resources. In addition, community-level awareness programmes in Asian languages are needed to reduce victim-blaming and misinformation.