Intimate Partner Violence in South Asian University Students

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a substantial problem affecting women of all social, economic, and cultural backgrounds. Although women worldwide are affected by IPV, research suggests that belief systems justifying violence against women or adherence to traditional gender roles may place some women at particularly high risk. Moreover, although women are exposed to IPV at high rates, many choose not to disclose to formal support (e.g., law enforcement) or informal supports (friends, family) due to numerous barriers. Experiences of disclosure are essential to understand since the response received after IPV disclosure is important to psychological functioning. The current study adopted an intersectional framework to examine the experience of IPV from the perspective of young, female South Asian students. Based on a mixed methods approach, the overall results indicated that women were frequently affected by psychological/emotional forms of IPV and that some of these forms of IPV were particularly meaningful within the South Asian culture. Similar to women of the majority culture, more than half of participants disclosed to informal supports while very few disclosed formally. A substantial barrier to disclosure were cultural norms about dating. Finally, while psychological health was qualitatively related to the experience of IPV, statistical analyses did not support a relationship between the response received after disclosure and psychological health.Ph.D