Relationships among intimate partner violence, unfair treatment, depressive symptoms, and family support: A community-based study of Gujarati women in the Midwestern USA.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) and unfair treatment can negatively affect the health and well-being of many women, especially women of color. Few studies have investigated the mental health impact of both forms of victimization together. Unlike most research on Asian Indian women, which has used aggregated samples of women of various Asian Indian or South Asian descent, this study focused on a specific group of Asian Indians. Data were collected from a probability sample of Gujarati residents, aged 18-65 years, in a midwestern state of USA via computer-assisted telephone interviews. One third of married women reported having experienced IPV and two thirds received unfair treatment during the previous 6 months. Respondents overall reported a low level of depressive symptoms. Analyses using negative binomial regression models found that while both IPV and unfair treatment were positively associated with depressive symptoms, their interaction effect was not statistically significant. When IPV victimization and support from family were included in the model, the incidence rate ratio for unfair treatment became nonsignificant, but the significant effect of IPV remained. Findings suggest that practitioners not only in mental health and IPV programs but also in alternative settings frequented by Gujarati women should inquire about these types of interpersonal victimization and assist women in connecting with and cultivating supportive networks. More research on the mental health impact of IPV and other types of interpersonal victimization is needed for underresearched yet growing population groups to inform socioculturally responsive assistance programs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Intimate Partner Violence and Openness to Online Counseling Among College Students.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is prevalent and has devastating consequences for college students. Online counseling (OC) may be a way to decrease barriers to help. This study seeks to determine openness to OC compared to face-to-face counseling (F2F) by examining: (1) How openness to OC varies depending on college students' personal and IPV characteristics and (2) How these characteristics vary compared to college non-IPV survivors. Two linear regressions were conducted using a sample from a cross sectional survey. First with the entire sample of college students (N = 1,518) to examine characteristics of those more open to OC and second with only those that identified as experiencing IPV (n = 1,211). The results demonstrated that IPV survivors are less open to OC than to F2F counseling (b = -.23, p < .01). For the model with all college students, those who were significantly more open to OC were female (b = -.39, p < .001), identified as LGBT (b = .23, p < .05), or Asian/Pacific Islander (API) (b = .26, p < .05), and had a physical health issue (b = -.19, p < .05). For the model that only analyzed IPV survivors, the same characteristics were shown to be significantly related to openness to OC. More research is needed to explore why IPV survivors are less open to OC compared to F2F counseling. Exploring why characteristics of female, LGBT, and physical health issues lead to openness to OC could help understand what barriers need to be addressed for wider use.