Resilience Among Immigrant Women of Color Who Experience Intimate Partner Violence: Perspectives from Service Providers

Background and Purpose: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a complex social problem with serious health and safety implications. Immigrant women of color (IWOC) face an elevated risk of IPV due to various factors, including migration status, normative social and cultural practices, structural and gender inequalities, discrimination, and racism. These factors influence IWOC’s access to services to escape abuse. Despite these challenges, research indicates that IWOC demonstrates remarkable resilience, drawing on inner strength to endure and overcome adversity.

Current research defines resilience as a process influenced by various ecological factors, including family, school, peers, community support, and social justice. Even in the absence of some of these pertinent factors, resilience is often seen as a distinctive trait of IWOC many of whom have encountered poverty, violence, displacement, torture, and intimidation in their countries of origin, during their journeys, and experience in refugee camps. Our study aims to uncover and examine how service providers perceive and acknowledge IWOC’s resilience in the face of different systemic and structural barriers.

Methods: This study is part of a sequential mixed-method research project that explored the perspectives of formal and informal service providers who work with IWOC experiencing IPV. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews (N=18) with service providers from a Midwestern State. Participants were recruited using nested and snowball sampling techniques. The in-depth interviews were audio recorded and subsequently transcribed for analysis. The participant pool represented a diverse range of demographics: Nearly half of the sample (47%) identified as belonging to an underrepresented racial/ethnic group, while (70%) were formal service providers, and (94%) worked for non-profit organizations.

Data analysis followed the rapid and rigorous qualitative data analysis (RADaR) technique which involves both individual and team-based approaches to streamline coding and analysis systematically. This method facilitated the development of data reduction tables using Excel. We used thematic coding to categorize codes and generate themes based on relationships between codes, frequencies, and meaning across codes. Discrepancies in coding and analysis were resolved through an interactive team-based approach involving a four-person research team.

Results: Our findings revealed five overarching themes: 1) Defining resilience: From surviving to thriving 2) Embracing resilience: Losing and starting all over again 3) Perseverance amidst myriad barriers through seeking help and support 4) Discovering hope amidst COVID 5) Empowering exchange: Service providers inspired by IWOC’s resilience. Based on the perspectives of service providers, our research underscores that undeterred by existing challenges, IWOCs experiencing IPV demonstrate remarkable inner strength and resilience in coping with their situations. These findings underscore the pivotal role played by various service providers, social support networks, and the justice system in bolstering the resilience of IWOC victims and survivors.

Conclusions and Implications: These findings are important because for IWOC experiencing violence, their ability to heal, thrive and live a life free from violence is paramount. Therefore, understanding policies, services, and programs that enhance and promote resilience among IWOCs is critical in influencing service access and utilization.