NCJ Number
209841
Journal
Family Violence & Sexual Assault Bulletin Volume: 21 Issue: 1 Dated: Spring 2005 Pages: 13-21
Date Published
2005
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This study identified sociodemographic differences between battered and nonbattered Vietnamese women for the purpose of building a family-violence knowledge base on this understudied population.
Abstract
A cross-sectional survey design was used to identify key variables that could distinguish between abused and nonabused Vietnamese women living in the Chicago area. Twenty-five abused Vietnamese women staying in a domestic-violence shelter agreed to participate in the study, and 25 nonabused Vietnamese women were recruited from neighborhood organizations. Nonabuse was indicated by their scores on the Conflict Tactics Scale 2. A sociodemographic questionnaire administered to the 50 women obtained information on age, marital status, education completed, years in the United States, financial status, number of family/friends who could be relied on for financial/emotional support, having been the target of parental abuse, and having witnessed parental abuse as a child. The Revised Conflict Tactics Scale measured the frequency of physical abuse, verbal violence, reasoning tactics, and domestic-violence injury. The Revised Attitudes Toward Wife Abuse Scale assessed the extent to which respondents approved of violence in an intimate relationship; and the Indochinese version of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 assessed 15 depression symptoms and 10 anxiety symptoms. Logistic regression analysis of the data found that participants' age, education, the witnessing of intraparental abuse as a child, approval of partner abuse, depression level, and anxiety level were significant predictors of domestic-violence victimization in the sample. Implications are drawn for mental health practitioners who work with Vietnamese women who have been victims of domestic violence. 2 tables and 70 references