African American Women's Responses to Intimate Partner Violence: An Examination of Cultural Context

ABSTRACT

This paper examined cultural context influencing response to intimate partner violence (IPV). The authors included five African Americans investigators who provided in-depth analyses of four major studies of IPV. The studies, conducted by the authors over the past 20 years, each included samples of primarily poor African American women and used quantitative and qualitative methodologies with comparative, longitudinal, multi-ethnic, and multi-city case control designs. Study results pertinent to African American women were critically examined for similarities and differences among contextual and cultural variables and for comparisons among women reporting physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Findings from the studies lead to conclusions and implications for the design, measurement, and analysis issues significant for further research within and across racial and ethnic groups of women experiencing IPV.

KEYWORDS:

• Violence
• African American women
• intimate partner violence
• culture
• cultural context
• domestic violence