Session: Technology & Intimate Partner Violence: Examining Perpetration, Victimization, Intervention, and Cultural Adaptation (Society for Social Work and Research 23rd Annual Conference - Ending Gender Based, Family and Community Violence)

The Grand Challenges for Social Work invite exploration of the use of information communication technologies in order to think of new ways to address social problems and to harness the digital for the overall social good (Berzin & Coulton, 2017). The emergence of technology provides new opportunities for intervention, yet the integration of these tools requires careful review and consideration of the guiding ethical values of our profession (LaMendola & Krysik, 2013). This panel addresses ways that an innovative online intervention, the myPlan app, provides a novel intervention for women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV).

MyPlan is a risk-informed online safety planning tool that provides convenient, private, and evidence-based information regarding options for safety and connects women who are in unsafe intimate relationships to social services. The myPlan app is interactive safety decision aid that provides education about healthy relationships, red flags for unsafe and abusive intimate relationships, immediate graphic feedback on the victims' score from the Danger Assessment (a validated IPV risk assessment), and a priority setting activity where the user considers their values (e.g. privacy, feelings for partner, having resources, safety and well-being of children) with regard to their relationship. The information provided by the user is then used to provide a personalized safety plan and to suggest help-seeking options and community based resources for survivors of IPV. The online safety plan intervention offers numerous benefits and has been tested among survivors of IPV in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

This panel will provide an overview of the myPlan intervention and present findings from research on myPlan with survivors of IPV who are residing in domestic violence shelters in the Southwest U.S. This work will be contextualized by a discussion of online risks and abuses that IPV survivors face and the need for ensuring that online interventions are culturally relevant. Paper 1 will address digital dating abuse among high school students, focusing on the perpetration of technology-based abuse. Paper 2 will address the relationship between technology-based abuse and physical violence, severe violence, and homicide risk for women living in a domestic violence shelter. Paper 3 provides results from a randomized controlled trial that assessed pre- and post-test decisional conflict and empowerment among women in shelter who used the myPlan intervention. Finally, paper 4 examines the process of cultural adaptation of the myPlan intervention for indigenous women, a group at high risk for IPV and homicide. We will conclude with a discussion of the state of the knowledge regarding the use of technology for social good (e.g., myPlan) and the use of technology to abuse.