Abstract
Purpose
Help-seeking in survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) is a thoughtful and iterative process that consists of defining the problem, deciding to seek help, and selecting a source of support. Religion plays an important role in the process of help-seeking for IPV survivors, but there is little quantitative evidence demonstrating this role. This study filled that gap.
Methods
We gathered data from 486 Christian, Muslim, and Jewish individuals who had experienced significant relationship conflict.
Results
Results revealed 33.9% of individuals experiencing relationship conflict sought help from people in their religious communities (e.g., leaders, community members and elders), with 82.6% rating their experiences as helpful and 23.6% rating them as harmful. Nature of the relationship conflict (e.g., fear, stress, and sources of stress) was an important factor in prevalence, helpfulness, and harmfulness of religious help-seeking. More specifically, 39.1% of the sample reported experiencing fear in their relationship, indicating presence of abuse, and were more likely to seek help from people in their religious communities, and rate them as harmful. Religious group played a role in religious help-seeking: those in the Christian group sought religious help more often than the Muslim and Jewish groups. However, the difference between the Christian and Jewish groups was due to religiosity; those who self-identified as more religious were more likely to seek religious sources of help.
Conclusions
This study provides empirical evidence for the prevalence and impact of religious help-seeking for individuals experiencing relationship conflict in a religiously diverse community sample.
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Notes
The genesis of the current project came from a panel conversation hosted by a domestic violence organization (API-GBV) on religious leaders’ role in domestic violence prevention and intervention. The lead author continued these conversations with Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religious leaders, DV advocates, and community members to inform the study questions and design. While it is beyond the scope of this paper to describe the development and progress of these community-based relationships, it does contribute to the decision to focus specifically on these three religious groups.
A separate manuscript is in preparation delving into the qualitative analysis of these open-ended responses.
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This research was supported with a research fellowship from George Mason University.
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Chaudhry, T., Cattaneo, L. Religious Help-Seeking in Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence. J Fam Viol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-023-00570-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-023-00570-2