The relationship between ethnicity and help-seeking behaviors among intimate partner violence victims

The purpose of this research was to describe and explain how ethnicity impacts help-seeking behaviors among female victims of intimate partner violence. The independent variable was ethnicity and the dependent variable was patterns of resource utilization. This study was a comparative analysis and used a nonprobability sample of convenience. Data was collected using a cross-sectional survey design. The sample size was 222 participants. The results indicated that there was no significant difference of ethnicity on help-seeking on the use of scaled informal and formal services or on the use of individual resources between ethnic groups. However, this may have been because Latinas comprised 70% of the total sample relative to the Asian, African American, and White sample sizes. Future researchers should continue to conduct studies on resource utilization patterns in order to create culturally competent outreach programs for at-risk communities