Randomized Study of an Online Intimate Partner Violence Intervention for Korean American Faith Leaders

Background: Prevalence of Intimate partner violence (IPV) among Korean Americans (KA) is the highest among all Asian immigrants. Korean cultural values of rigid gender roles, ingrained patriarchal and hierarchal family systems, and value of community welfare over personal needs contribute to IPV, and coupled with limited English fluency, act as barriers to seeking help. Therefore, KAs underutilize existing services and rely on their churches and faith leaders for assistance with IPV. However, KA faith leaders are poorly equipped and trained to deal with IPV in their congregations, including in the areas of IPV laws, counseling services and resources. This study developed an online IPV training for KA faith leaders targeting Koran cultural norms and Christian values that contributes to or tolerates IPV and conducted a randomized study to examine knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy, and prevention and intervention behaviors about IPV at pretest and 3-month follow-up between the intervention and control groups. 

Methods: We recruited 55 KA faith leaders in a southeastern state through two methods: 1) In-person recruitment at a monthly meeting of a local Korean Church Association and a monthly meeting of the Korean Baptist Church Association in the state; and 2) phone calls to Korean American churches listed in the online Korean Yellow Page. After completing the online baseline assessment, participants were randomized to either the intervention group (n=27) or the control group (n=28). The intervention group took the online training intervention with three modules on knowledge of IPV, attitudes about IPV, self-efficacy for intervention, and IPV prevention and intervention behaviors. Each module took approximately 30-45 minutes. The intervention group also received a weekly email reminding them to complete the intervention along with one current news article and one video clip regarding issues related to IPV, IPV in the KA immigrant community, and the role of clergy. All but one participant completed a 3-month post-intervention assessment. Repeated measure Mixed model ANOVA was performed to examine the intervention effect in increasing knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy, prevention and intervention behaviors between two time points.

Results: Most participants were male (76.4%) and foreign-born (96.4%) with the mean of 15.2 years in the U.S. Their mean age was 47.44. 50.9% of participants were Presbyterian, with 49.1% working in a small congregation with less than 100 members. We found that the intervention group significantly improved their knowledge of (p <.01) and enhanced attitudes against IPV (p<.05). For self-efficacy, prevention, and intervention behaviors, mean changes from pre to post for the intervention group were higher than the control group, but the difference was not statistically significant.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates that the online training was effective in changing their knowledge and attitudes about IPV. While the sample size was small in the present study, which may explain the statistically insignificant results on self-efficacy and prevention and intervention behaviors, outcomes support the need for further research using the same online intervention with a larger sample of KA faith leaders from various geographical locations.