Enculturation as a Condition Impacting Korean American Physicians' Responses to Korean Immigrant Women Suffering Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

We explored how Korean American (KA) physicians in the Los Angeles area respond in their medical practice to Korean immigrant women with a history of intimate partner violence (IPV). Twenty physicians were recruited and interviewed in-depth. Grounded theory analyses revealed that KA physicians’ responses to IPV ranged from denying signs of IPV and trivializing IPV to acknowledging IPV. Physician response was related to the degree to which he or she was enculturated in mainstream medical practice norms in the United States. We advance current knowledge on physicians’ IPV screening and intervention practices by exploring the practices of KA physicians, in particular.

Acknowledgments

We thank Nicole Allen for her valuable comments on an earlier draft of this article. Data collection was funded by the Graduate College Dissertation Travel Grant at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.