The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #42166

Karen A. McDonnell, PhD¹, Shamira Abdulla, MA², and Anjali Nagpaul, Esq². (1) Maternal and Child Health, George Washington University School of Public Health, 2175 K Street Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037, 202.467.2282, sphkxm@gwumc.edu, (2) Asian Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project, PO Box 14268, Washington, DC 20044

Introduction: The needs of abused Asian women have been relatively ignored in the literature. The goals of Project AWARE (Asian Women Advocating Respect and Empowerment) were twofold: to provide a needs assessment of abused Asian women and to determine the capacity of area service providers to assist these women.

Methods: Project AWARE was a two-phase study that consisted of 1) cross-sectional anonymous survey of 178 Asian women and 2) focus groups of area service providers. Our recruiting techniques purposely sampled women who were abused, or knew of other Asian women who had been abused.

Results: Quantitative survey results showed that Asian women experienced more psychological/domination forms of abuse than other forms of abuse. The physical abuse they experienced was frequently of a sexual nature. The dramatic dire consequences of abuse was evident in the vast majority of women reporting suffering from psychological as well as physical injuries from the abuse. An often-neglected form of abuse was abuse by the in-laws. Over ½ of the women did not know of any services in the area that could assist them. Qualitative remarks from the Asian women and the area service providers will be utilized to provide a context to the survey responses and address needed improvements to existing services and outreach.

Conclusions: Many of the existing measurement tools do not measure certain forms of abuse experienced by Asian women. There is a need to develop and publicize services available to abused Asian women that are culturally and linguistically responsive.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the needs of abused Asian women
• Discuss the role of culture in developing culturally and linguistically appropriate services to assist abused Asian women
• Describe the experieces of intimate partner violence among abused Asian women

Keywords: Asian and Pacific Islander Women, Domestic Violence

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.