Intimate Partner Violence Among Asian Indian Immigrant Women in the United States: A Systematic Review on Acculturation

Background and Purpose: Social workers are engaging in prevention efforts against intimate partner violence (IPV) broadly, and among Asian Indian immigrant women in particular. Over 1 million Asian Indian immigrants live within the United States. Despite the existence of multiple organizations addressing IPV, an absence of culturally sensitive programs that can be applied locally within the U.S. for Asian Indian immigrant women persists. Acculturation and cultural values are often discussed in association with IPV, yet the unique impact of the acculturation experience for Asian Indian women often remains omitted from prevention and intervention programs. Thus, to examine how IPV may be impacted by acculturation among the Asian Indian community, a systematic analysis of the literature was conducted.

Methods: The Campbell Collaboration Resource Center was used to guide this systematic review. Five databases were used and included: Psych Info, Pub Med, Social Service Abstracts, Humanities and Social Sciences Index. Articles were identified using the search terms of: 1) IPV, domestic violence, battered women, sexual violence, or interpersonal violence, and 2)  Asian Indian or Asian immigrant. Articles were included that had Asian Indian married women samples and that discussed issues of acculturation and IPV.. A review of the factors that are associated with IPV among the Asian Indian community were elucidated, with particular attention to issues of acculturation.

Results: Of the 112 articles identified, 31 articles were included in the systematic review. Factors that were associated with IPV among the Asian Indian community included language familiarity, arranged marriages, cultural values, absence of social networks, and excessive dependency on the husband.  Studies examined how IPV among Asian Indian women impacted the outcomes of mental health, somatic, and depressive symptoms. Few articles discussed acculturation specifically.  Of note, findings depict a distinction between acculturation and enculturation in regards to increasing susceptibility to violence. While both qualitative and quantitative research is lacking, the gaps are more pronounced for quantitative research that faces challenges involving the dearth of literature, the non-representativeness of samples, and the small sample sizes.

Conclusions and Implications: The lack of succinct literature in the realm of IPV among Asian Indian women and acculturation points to the need for knowledge creation. The influence of culture within Asian Indian families is a complex phenomenon and immigrant women tend to be bamboozled in a new environment. Indians have been included in the category of South Asians which, for example, includes individuals from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka most commonly. An in depth awareness of the cultural constituents of the Asian Indian culture is rare. While factors such as social isolation, cultural nuances, interpretation of gender stereotypes have been studied, its interconnectedness to acculturation is absent. This has undermined the role of acculturation in the promulgation or curtailment of IPV. A thorough explanation of this phenomenon is inconsistent without accounting for acculturation and the allied factors.