South Asian Immigrant Men and Women and Conceptions of Partner Violence

Abstract

Limited knowledge exists about conceptual variations in defining intimate partner violence (IPV) by ethnicity, such as South Asian (SA) immigrant men and women. In a multi-ethnic study, we employed participatory concept mapping with three phases: brainstorming on what constitutes IPV; sorting of the brainstormed items; and interpretation of visual concept maps generated statistically. The parent study generated an overall general multi-ethnic map (GMEM) that included participant interpretations. In the current study, we generated a SA specific initial-map that was interpreted by eleven SA men and women in gender specific groups. Their interpretations are examined for similar and unique aspects across men and women and compared to GMEM. SA men and women shared similar views about sexual abuse and victim retaliation, which also aligned closely with GMEM. Both SA women and men had an expanded view of the concept of controlling behaviors compared to GMEM. SA women, unlike SA men, viewed some aggressive behaviors and acts as cultural with some GMEM congruence. SA women uniquely identified some IPV acts as private–public. We discuss implications for research and service assessments.

A Scoping Review on Intimate Partner Violence in Canada’s Immigrant Communities

“…Although several of the reviewed studies (Guruge & Humphreys, 2009;Guruge et al, 2012;Hyman et al, 2006cHyman et al, , 2011Kanagaratnam et al, 2012;Mason et al, 2008) particularly focused on Sri Lankan Tamil women, other studies (Ahmad et al, 2004(Ahmad et al, , 2009(Ahmad et al, , 2013(Ahmad et al, , 2017George & Rashidi, 2014;Madden et al, 2016) collected their data more broadly. In addition to examining South Asian immigrants as a whole, it may be beneficial to make a distinction between South Asian immigrant women based on their countries of origin to explore whether or not differences exist.…”

“…Based on their findings, Ahmad et al (2004) suggested that community education should address this ambiguity around the definitions of abuse among South Asian immigrants. In a more recent study, Ahmad, Smylie, Omand, Cyriac, and O'Campo (2017) found that South Asian men and women "expanded the concept of controlling behaviors compared to their multiethnic counterparts" (p. 64) by including items such as forcing one to work, blocking one's access to health-care providers, or imposing religious beliefs. These findings underscore the stance in most of the studies reviewed-namely that men's and women's social positions as individuals and/or within groups could determine how they view the public versus private nature of abuse.…”

“…All studies, either explicitly or inexplicitly, warned against homogenizing immigrant women's perceptions of or experiences with abuse. Moghissi and Goodman (1999) as well as Ahmad et al (2017) acknowledged that culture is by no means static and instead continuously develops and changes. Lucknauth (2014) further suggested that "each woman [is] .…”

Intimate partner violence among speaking immigrant adult Portuguese women in Canada

“…This prevalence is close to the general prevalence of IPV known in Canada. Another study (15) conducted in Canada with a South Asian immigrant focus on the concept of IPV found that the maen's and women's views of the concept of IPV is similar. However, women related men's violent acts more as a cultural behavior than men did.…”

“…Scholars have studied IPV among various immigrant communities in Canada (10)(11)(12) . Over four recent studies were conducted among immigrant women livings in Canada (13)(14)(15)(16) .…”