Abstract
More inquiry is needed into how Mexican immigrant survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) are seeking help, to improve interventions designed to reach this isolated and vulnerable population. This grounded theory study, using a sample of 29 Mexican immigrant survivors of IPV and 15 key informants, examines the help-seeking process. Findings indicate that informal networks, particularly family and female friends, play a critical role in providing assistance and linking women to formal services. These findings have implications for the delivery of formal domestic violence services to this community as well as the response of police and other formal service systems.
Studies suggest that Latinas experience higher rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) than White, non-immigrant women (Caetano, Field, Ramisetty-Mikler, & McGrath, 2005; Field & Caetano, 2005), and cultural and structural factors pose unique challenges to Latinas in finding solutions for the abuse (Raj & Silverman, 2002). More inquiry is needed on how this population is currently seeking help and assistance, to improve interventions designed to reach this isolated and highly vulnerable group of women. This study examines the process of seeking help for a sample of Mexican immigrant women, many of whom are undocumented, with a recent history of IPV.
IPV is a chronic trauma that often increases in severity and level of danger over time (Stark, 2007). The physical, emotional, and psychological consequences of anticipating, avoiding, and enduring IPV can be devastating to survivors and their children. According to the National Violence Against Women Survey, 41.6% of the female respondents were injured during their most recent assault (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000). Children residing in abusive homes are also at higher risk for exposure to violence and injury (Casanueva, Foshee, & Barth, 2005). Women enduring IPV are at higher risk for exposure to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV (El-Bassel et al., 2004; Raj, Silverman, & Amaro, 2004), and suffer from higher rates of depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and suicidality (Coker et al., 2002; Coker, Weston, Creson, Justice, & Blakeny, 2005; Dutton et al., 2006; Houry, Kaslow, & Thompson, 2005; Pico-Alfonso, 2005; Pico-Alfonso et al., 2006). Perhaps the most startling impact of IPV is the role it plays in the murder of women and children. Wives comprise 81% of all persons killed by their spouse (Durose et al., 2005), and sadly children account for 13% of individuals killed as a result of IPV (Bossarte, Simon, & Barker, 2006).
Emotional and concrete support can mitigate the physical and mental health impact of IPV (Coker et al., 2002). Latina survivors of abuse experience mental health problems at lower rates when they have greater access to formal services (Schultz, Roditti, & Gillette, 2009). Yet, literature examining the ways in which Mexican immigrant women seek help remains limited. What is known is that Latinas, especially those from Mexico, seek formal assistance for IPV at lower rates than Caucasian, non-immigrant women (Ingram, 2007; West, Kantor, & Jasinski, 1998). Also, Mexican women who are more educated, more acculturated, possess some English language proficiency, and have legal documentation status are more likely to seek formal assistance for the abuse (Brabeck & Guzman, 2009; Lipsky, Caetano, Field, & Larkin, 2006).
This pattern of help-seeking in the U.S. context may have been shaped by the system of social services in Mexico. Although the institutional response to family violence in Mexico has improved over the last decade, the social service system remains underdeveloped, particularly outside major metropolitan areas (Esteinou, 2007). In total, 57% of the population does not have access to public social security services, whereas only 32% and 6% have access to the national social security system and state social security system, respectively (Esteinou, 2007). Thus, women from Mexico may not be fully accustomed to considering the possibility of turning to formal or public forms of assistance to cope with domestic violence.
Mexican immigrant women are more likely to seek help for abuse from informal sources, such as family and friends (Brabeck & Guzman, 2008). Yet, a desire to protect the family, the belief that family would not view abuse as a problem, and norms suggesting these matters remain private serve as barriers to seeking help from family (Acevedo, 2000; Brabeck & Guzman, 2008). Furthermore, Latino family and gender-based expectations such as marianismo, the expectations that women sacrifice self-interest and show deference to their husband’s authority, and respeto, deference to a parent’s authority (the father’s, in particular), may have a role in making some Latinas less likely to seek help for abuse (Edelson, Hokoda, & Ramos-Lira, 2007; Perilla, 1999; Perilla, Bakeman, & Norris, 1994). The few existing studies of the perceived helpfulness of family responses to abuse in the Latino community show mixed findings. Responses range from providing instrumental assistance and insisting the woman get a divorce to normalizing the abuse and expecting her to endure the abuse for the sake of the family (Acevedo, 2000; Brabeck & Guzman, 2008; Klevens et al., 2007; Molina & Abel, 2010).
More study is needed with regard to the process by which Mexican immigrant women seek help for IPV. In particular, more detailed inquiry is needed into the role of family and other informal social networks in assisting these women with finding a feasible solution to the abuse.
Method
The findings in this article are part of a larger study of Mexican immigrant women’s experiences of IPV and their process of seeking help (Kyriakakis, Araujo, & Edmond, 2012). This study received a Certificate of Confidentiality from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as human subjects research review board approval at Washington University in St. Louis and Adelphi University. This article will focus on the help-seeking findings, specifically the role of informal social networks in the process of seeking help for abuse. Two data sources were used to gather information on this topic: (a) Mexican immigrant women who experienced IPV and (b) social service providers and community leaders in a position to provide assistance to these women. Data sources were obtained, in equal parts, in New York and St. Louis, Missouri.
Data Sources
Primary data source: Mexican immigrant women with history of IPV
A sample of 29 Mexican women, age 18 or older, who arrived at the United States at or after 15 years of age, with a recent history of IPV (past 12 months) comprised the primary sample. The age at migration criteria, based on a study of risk factors for abuse among Latinos (Frias & Angel, 2005), was for the purpose of limiting the level of acculturation to those who spent their formative years in Mexico.
Participants were recruited using a community sampling technique, whereby Spanish language flyers were posted where potential study participants were likely to congregate. To protect the privacy and safety of potential study participants, the flyer announced a general immigration study and did not contain any information suggesting domestic violence was a focus of the study. Targeted outreach took place at Spanish-speaking domestic violence agencies, community mental health organizations, and religious institutions serving the Latino community. Workers at these agencies gave study flyers to women they knew or suspected were experiencing abuse. Women who encountered a study flyer and elected to contact the primary investigator by telephone were then screened by the principal investigator (PI) for eligibility. Women for whom participation would cause severe emotional distress or place them at probable risk for severe or retaliatory abuse were deemed ineligible. Three participants were deemed ineligible because they did not have an intimate abuse history, and one because she entered the United States prior to age 15. Once an interview was scheduled, the participant was assigned a numerical identification document (ID), which was affixed to all data collected. Name and contact information, including safe contact instructions, were kept in a separate locked file, the contents of which were destroyed immediately following data collection. Audio recordings of the interviews were destroyed immediately after they were transcribed.
In all, 15 of the 29 sample participants were recruited in New York City and 14 were recruited in St. Louis. The participants from the two sites are similar with regard to all characteristics, with the exception of marital status, which differs somewhat between the two sites. The mean age of the participants was 34.7 years, and all were mothers. The mean number of years the participants lived in the United States was 10.19, having arrived in the United States at the mean age of 24. Eleven came from urban and 18 from rural areas, representing 14 states in Mexico. The participants vary with regard to marital status and educational attainment at the time of the interview. Twenty-eight of the participants had a work history; however, 15 of them were working at the time of the interview. The participants had similar educational levels to their abusive partner, but were slightly younger (mean age difference < 1 year). Twenty-one of the partners were known to be working at the time of the interview and all of them were working over 40 hr a week.
Face-to-face interviews
The interviews were almost entirely in Spanish, unless the participant preferred English, and all interview materials were in Spanish. The author, who is a proficient Spanish speaker, conducted all the interviews. To limit cultural meaning or linguistic errors, the author led the interview, but relied upon an interpreter as needed to translate questions to or responses from the participant or rectify the cultural meaning.
The data included (a) a survey of demographic, household composition, and socioeconomic characteristics; and (b) a semi-structured interview on experiences of IPV. These surveys were developed in English and then translated into Spanish by staff at the Latino Center for Family Research at the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. They were then reviewed by a native Spanish speaker from Mexico, who was also a staff member at the Latino Center for Family. The English language interview surveys were reviewed and approved by a domestic violence service provider. The interview was also pre-tested in Spanish with a survivor of IPV who fits all criteria of the study and was known to the PI. She provided feedback on interview content and process, which were integrated into the interview surveys and methods. Data collection took place during two 90- to 120-min interviews or during one 3-hr interview. The semi-structured interview provided information about the phenomenon of IPV as experienced by Mexican immigrant women. The interview covered three main topic areas: (a) the phenomenon of abuse as experienced by the victim, including its severity and the tactics used by the batterer; (b) the role of cultural meanings, values, attitudes and expectations and structural factors at play that are exploited and serve to limit or augment the victim’s agency in the relationship; and (c) the victim’s experience and process of seeking help for the abuse, including her consideration of cultural meaning, values, attitudes, and expectations as well as structural factors (i.e., social network structure, immigration status, language abilities). This article will focus on the findings for the third topic area, specifically the role of informal social networks in help-seeking.
Secondary data source: Social service providers and community leaders
The key informant source of data was official members of the community in a position to assist battered Mexican immigrant women, including mental health and social service organizations serving the Latino community, domestic violence service providers, and Mexican social club or church leaders. This data source possessed knowledge of the community and social service context that could illuminate or contextualize the information provided by the Mexican immigrant women. The following forms of data were collected from this source: (a) field notes of conversations held during the outreach and recruitment process, and (b) semi-structured interviews with a sample of this group.
Field notes
The primary investigator took field notes following any contact (phone, in person, at meetings) with social service providers or community members in a position to assist Mexican immigrant women experiencing abuse.
Face-to-face interviews
Fifteen social service providers and members of the community participated in the key informant interviews. A purposeful sampling design with maximum variation was used to select the key informants. Effort was made to approach participants who equally represented three categories of service providers: (a) health, mental health, legal, or social service providers serving the Latino community; (b) domestic violence service providers; and (c) business or cultural, social, religious institutions serving the Latino community (e.g., church, social club, hair salon owner). Three participants were affiliated with a Spanish-speaking congregation, six with domestic violence organizations, one participant was an attorney specializing in domestic violence cases, two were social workers in a medical setting, and three were social workers in social service settings. Twelve participants were female and three were male. Four of the participants were Mexican and five others were from other Spanish-speaking countries. The remaining six participants were U.S.-born Caucasian. The participants worked in their current position for an average of 5.74 years (range = 0.5-8.5 years) and worked in their field an average of 10.17 years (range = 0.66-34 years).
The author conducted all of the interviews, which were all face-to-face, lasted approximately 60 min, were audio-recorded (with the participant’s permission), and transcribed. The interview questions were determined by the questions or information gaps emerging from the interviews with the Mexican immigrant women. The service providers were also given the opportunity to share what they view as the salient cultural and structural factors affecting Mexican immigrant women’s experience of abuse and help-seeking. These interviews began after the first third of the interviews with the Mexican immigrant women were completed.
Data Analysis
The focus of analysis of the data in this article includes how cultural factors as well as the abuse itself influence help-seeking patterns. The analysis was conducted by the author. A grounded theory approach was used, which is indicated when the goal is to gain information about the subjective and collective experiences of underlying structures, such as contextual factors of Mexican immigrant women, and how these structures operate (Charmaz, 2005). The semi-structured interviews with the Mexican immigrant women were triangulated with the demographic information, field notes, and semi-structured interviews with providers in the community. Triangulation was for the purpose of enhancing “completeness” of the data, rather than for “confirmation” of findings (Breitmayer, Ayres, & Knafl, 1993). NVivo Version 7 software was used to manage the data during the analysis.
The process of analyzing data proposed by Strauss and Corbin (1990) was used, and included the following phases: (a) open coding, (b) axial coding, (c) selective coding, and (d) theoretical proposition (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). During the open coding phase, help-seeking behavior or the lack thereof was identified. Cultural norm codes and structural factor codes for help-seeking behavior were also identified during this phase. For the axial coding phase, demographic survey data were linked with each case in the NVivo analysis. Throughout the analysis of the interviews with the Mexican immigrant women, comparisons were made according to the following categories: married and unmarried, children at the time of the abuse and no children at the time of the abuse, and referring agency. As marriage meaningfully consisted of living with the partner, this became the indicator for a “marital relationship.” As all of the women were mothers, a comparison was made of the abusive behavior before and after having children. Women were also compared according to age, educational level, work type (domestic vs. store or restaurant), New York or St. Louis, whether they came from rural or urban areas of Mexico, whether or not their partner was raised in Mexico, and if their relationship was initiated in Mexico or the United States. The notes from the key informant interviews and field notes were referred to throughout the analysis process to inform or provide clarity about the experiences and context for the Mexican immigrant women.
Issues of Validity
Nine strategies (triangulation, thick description, member checking, negative case analysis, transparent audit trail, clarifying researcher bias, fairness, peer review, and external audit) identified in the literature were used to maintain trustworthiness and methodological rigor (Creswell, 2007; Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Maxwell, 2005; Miles & Huberman, 1994; Seale, 1999). Fairness was achieved through the report of extensive participant quotes, and thick description was achieved through multiple sessions of interaction. A transparent audit trail of logs and memos recording procedural and analytic decisions was kept by the researcher. Clarity of researcher bias was attained by completing interview summaries of the researcher’s observations of each participant following an interview and by keeping a reflexive journal. Member checking was accomplished by reviewing a summary of the findings with six participants. Peer review and external audit were carried out through a group presentation of the findings to social service providers. Following the presentation, three questions were asked: (a) Were the findings consistent with what they had observed about the phenomenon in their work setting? (b) Were the cultural and structural interpretations accurate? and (c) Was there anything about the phenomenon missing from our findings? The participants agreed with the cultural interpretations, and the findings of the manifestation of abuse were consistent with their experiences of the phenomenon.
A significant threat to validity is errors in translation of data and accurate cultural interpretation of findings, especially as the author is outside the culture being examined. To maintain the accuracy of interpretation and proximity in meaning expressed by the participants, the semi-structured interviews were conducted in Spanish. Analysis was conducted by the primary investigator. Humbled by the enormous responsibility of maintaining fidelity throughout the research process the author felt to the study’s participants, she consulted with bicultural, bilingual staff members of the Center for Latino Family Studies as she needed to ensure accurate assessment of translation and meaning expressed by the participant.
Results
Role of Family Network in the Process of Seeking Help
Parents
Nearly all of the participants, at the time of the first interview, told their parents about the abuse they were experiencing. Most of these women, however, kept the abuse they were suffering hidden from their parents for some time. Three reasons emerged for why the participants did not want to tell their parents: (a) They did not want their parents to view their husband in a negative light, (b) they felt shame or blame about the relationship failing, and (c) they did not want to cause their parents distress.
Many of the participants in the sample decided to marry their partner even when their parents did not approve. The other participants married men whom their parents thought were good men and held in high regard. Thus, participants in both situations felt shame and guilt about telling their parents they were having problems in their relationship. Some of the participants, particularly those who were still trying to make the relationship work, did not want their parents to view their partner in a negative light. The participants reported valuing the relationship with their parents deeply. At the same time, maintaining harmony with their partner was also important. Thus, to avoid conflict within the family, women hid the abuse from their parents. A 39-year-old mother of two boys, whose partner isolated her, was controlling, and constantly criticized her, describes why she would not tell her parents:
Porque en nuestra cultura si uno pone (en) mal a su esposo con la otra, con la familia, ya no lo van a querer y entonces él y yo vamos a seguir juntos porque él y yo nos perdonamos, mi familia no va a perdonar a él. [Because in our culture, if one shows her husband to be bad with the other, with the family, then they aren’t going to like him anymore. He and I are going to stay together because he and I forgive each other; my family will not forgive him.]
Some of the participants, particularly those who entered the relationship without their parents’ approval, expected that their parents would get angry and blame them for the problems in the relationship. This was the case with a 22-year-old mother of a month-old baby girl, who joined a severe physically violent, isolating, and controlling relationship with her partner. She describes why she kept the abuse hidden from her mother, who ultimately responded with emotional and concrete support:
Porque yo me sentía culpable porque ella muchas veces me dijo que no me juntara con él, que me tratara más tiempo. Entonces yo me sentía culpable y no le quería decir, o sea no decirle tenía como vergüenza de decirle que había fracasado con el, por eso. [Because, I felt guilty because she had told me many times not to get together with him, that I should get to know him better with more time. So I felt guilty and I didn’t want to tell her. I mean not telling her, I was ashamed to tell her that I had failed with him. That’s why.]
The most common reason participants did not tell their parents was because they did not want to cause their parents distress. A severely isolated 33-year-old mother of three small children describes how, out of concern for her mother’s health, she chose not to tell her parents about the abuse:
Si . . . es por eso que me detengo también al no quererle avisar. ¿Porque si yo le aviso y luego digo: y luego y si se enferma? ¿Y luego si le pasa algo? Pues me van a echar la culpa que por culpa mía. [Yes, it’s because of that, I stop myself and don’t want to tell her. Because if I tell her, and later if she becomes sick? And if something happens to her? Well, then they’ll blame me because it was my fault.]
She was among a couple of participants who feared that her mother’s health was not strong enough to take the stress of knowing her daughter was enduring abuse in another country. The concern about causing parents distress was a reason given by nearly all of the participants in the sample who initially resisted telling their parents about the abuse.
When the participants finally disclosed some of the problems they were experiencing in their marriage, they typically told their mother, who often told their father. When asked what they initially told their parents about the problems they were having, some participants said that they told their parents nothing, a few told their parents they were fighting a lot, and some told their parents their husband drank a lot. The most typical response from parents was that problems in the marriage were not uncommon and to work harder to make the relationship work. When informed of the full extent of the abuse, most of the time from a sibling and some of the time from the participant herself, parents had a very different response to the abuse. All but two of the parents did not condone the abuse. In fact, most of the parents suggested that she leave her partner.
A Spanish-speaking domestic violence service provider, who herself is Latina, describes how women’s reluctance to tell their parents the whole story results in less helpful responses. Here, she describes why she encourages her clients to tell their parents everything that is going on:
Some of the family that knows, some are supportive, some are fearful that they are alone so they prefer for them to reconcile with their partner. And some of these things are very plausible. I can understand because they are not explaining [the whole story]. I am like, “Give your mom some credit, let her know what is going on, you never know. And then if she says you should be with him, then you can come back and blame me.” Right, but sometimes they are so fearful of letting their mom know what is going on that they don’t even disclose much. [They say,] “We are fighting.” So of course if you tell somebody, “Yeah, we had an argument,” they are going to be like, “Oh, but work it out.” But I think that yes, they receive mixed messages, but they don’t give clear and succinct explanations of what is going on. So if you don’t do that, you won’t get the response that you want.
When a 38-year-old participant visited her parents, they immediately inquired about her well-being and the state of her marriage. Their suggestion was similar to those of most of the parents of the participants when they learned how much their daughter was suffering: Leave the relationship:
¿Sí, me dice: cuándo lo vas a dejar? Porque tú no eres feliz, me dice. Tú no eres (participant’s name). Ni en tu cuerpo ni en tu mente porque yo ca . . .¿yo era muy gorda porque la depresión y él me daba mucho de comer creo que para que me engordara y me viera más fea, sí? [Yes, she says, “When are you going to leave him? Because you’re not happy,” she says. “You aren’t (participant’s name). Not in your body and not in your mind” because I. . . . I was really fat because of depression and he gave me a lot to eat, I think so I would get fat and look uglier, right?]
While some of the women discussed the attitude that marriage is for life, the responses that nearly all of the participants received from their family suggest that an exception to this rule exists when there is abuse. Moreover, the abuse need not be physical. The parents of many of the women in the sample began inquiring about problems in the relationship when they noticed their daughter’s visits or phone contact were becoming infrequent as a result of the isolation.
The type of assistance given to the participants depended on where the parents and daughters were residing at the time. When they were experiencing abuse in Mexico, they typically lived in the same town as their parents. Their parents assisted by providing a safe refuge during violent incidents, money, food, or clothing for her and the children, and emotional support. One participant describes how her whole family protected her from the abuse by providing her with a safe place to stay during periods of acute violence:
Y yo agarré y me salí con mis hermanas, me fui con mi mamá. Ella (hermana) mandó a traer a mi mamá y yo me fui con mi mamá y él en la noche andaba como loco buscándome que dónde estaba yo. A otro día bien temprano me llevó mi mamá para, para la casa, para el pueblo. Nosotros íbamos bajando del coche cuando él ya estaba ahí parado esperándome, y mi mamá le echó y le dijo. ¿Mi mamá me defendía, qué no haría una madre por defender a su hija? [And I went and I left with my sisters, I left with my mother. She (sister) sent for my mother, and I left with my mother, and he was going crazy looking for me that night, looking for where I was. Early the next day, my mother took me to our house, to the village. We were getting out of the car when he was standing there waiting for me, and my mother kicked him out and told him. My mother defended me, what wouldn’t a mother do to defend her daughter?]
Among the women who were experiencing abuse in the United States and had parents in Mexico, the type of assistance was typically emotional. They would speak to their daughter and emphasize how she did not deserve this treatment. While the distance and higher cost of living made it difficult to provide concrete assistance, several of the parents dispatched the participant’s sibling to assist her in the United States.
Siblings
Siblings, for all but one participant, were always supportive of the women. Siblings, typically sisters, were the first family members to learn about the abuse, which typically occurred by encountering evidence of abuse, such as bruises, or by directly witnessing violent episodes. In addition to providing emotional support, siblings provided instrumental and concrete assistance, such as money, food, clothing, work opportunities, and a permanent place to live. They also accompanied the women when the police were called and, in one case, called the police on behalf of her sister.
The most illustrative example of the multiple forms of assistance siblings provided is that of a 26-year-old participant, who met her partner when living in another state with all of her siblings. Her partner convinced her to move to his city. After several years living alone with him, she convinced her older sister and younger brother to move to where she was living with her partner. She reported that this invitation was a deliberate attempt to obtain some kind of help and power. When her siblings came, her situation changed dramatically. The emotional support was immediate, with her brother and sister counteracting her husband’s criticisms. Her partner did not let her drive, so her sister taught her how to drive. She describes an exchange she had with her partner regarding how she was going to learn to drive:
(Partner asks) “¿Dónde andabas?” (participant responds) “Enseñándome a manejar.” Y dice “yo soy tu pendejo que te . . .” Y bueno, y si no me vale, le digo me vale lo que tú digas. Le digo, “pero vas a ver el día de mañana, me voy a enseñar a manejar y te voy a tapar la boca. Digo, para que no vuelvas a decir que no sirvo para nada y que no sé hacer nada.” Pos seguimos siguiendo ahí todos los días yo y mi hermana y vámonos que enseñar a manejar. [(Partner asks) “Where have you been?” (participant responds) “Teaching myself to drive.” And he says, “and I am your idiot that . . .” It’s not worth it to me, I tell him it doesn’t matter to me what you say. And I tell him, “But you are going to see tomorrow, I am going to teach myself to drive and I’m going to shut you up. So you don’t ever again say that I’m not good for anything and that I don’t know how to do anything.” And so, we kept on every day, my sister and I, and we went to teach ourselves how to drive.]
When she decided to leave the relationship, she moved permanently with her sister who assisted with childcare so she could work. Her sister also accompanied her to retrieve her belongings after she left and encouraged her to call the police when her partner took the truck that was in her name. Her siblings were at her side during the entire process, providing support and assistance while she gained capacities and slowly extricated herself from the relationship.
Siblings often provided both emotional and concrete support that sent the message that they should be in a relationship that is free of abuse. A 30-year-old mother of two teenagers illustrates this support:
Ellos (siblings) me ayudaron mucho, económicamente y moralmente. Mi hermano me, me dijo, este, que aprendiera yo que el, el amor es libertad. [They (siblings) helped me a lot, economically and with my morale. My brother, he told me so that I would understand that, that love is freedom.]
Among participants engaged in formal social services, some were told of the service by their sibling. Among the St. Louis subsample, one participant received police assistance and subsequently an order of protection because her sister contacted the police. Three women were encouraged to attend a general women’s support group at a community-based social service center at the urging of their sisters. Among the New York subsample, four participants were encouraged by siblings to call the police, and their siblings were present when the police arrived. This police contact resulted in the receipt of domestic violence service referrals.
In-laws
Some of the participants turned to their in-laws for assistance with mixed results. Several of the families were supportive, at least verbally. One participant had very supportive in-laws who confronted their son about his behavior, and another participant’s sister in-law (also an abused and abandoned wife) gave her some of the little food she herself possessed. Most, however, ignored or blamed the woman for the abuse, and some were themselves abusive. In-law abuse was quite common among this sample of participants and tended to take place when the participants lived with or near their in-laws. Mothers-in-law and sisters-in-law often served as informants and at times made false allegations about infidelity or other acts of “disrespect.” Participants believed that these allegations were a deliberate attempt to create conflict between the participant and her partner.
Children
In several instances, adult and teenage children provided assistance to their mother. A 57-year-old mother of eight adult children moved in with her daughters when she left the decades-long relationship with her husband, and was encouraged by her adult daughter to seek counseling for abuse. A study participant from the New York subsample taught her teenage daughter to call the police if there was a violent incident. The daughter did call, resulting in a positive police response and subsequent order of protection. The most dramatic example of the way in which children were a source of assistance was that of a 49-year-old mother of five adult children. She left her husband of 30 years after she thought that there was an imminent risk he would kill her. Once she disclosed this fear to her daughter, all five adult children orchestrated her transportation across the Mexican border into the United States. They then kept her location hidden from their father, who aggressively called the children to inquire into her whereabouts. The support this participant received from her children illustrates the strong and loyal relationship nearly all of the participants have with their children.
Role of Friendship Networks in the Process of Seeking Help
Extrafamilial disclosure taboo
Two reported cultural barriers emerged that limited the likelihood that participants would turn to those outside the family for help. One was the taboo associated with sharing family problems with those outside the family. Some of the participants described how it is very typical for Mexican women to remain “callada” or quiet about abuse. This was also echoed repeatedly by service providers, as one Latina domestic violence service provider explained,
Even I was raised that way. You don’t talk about what is going on outside of your house. Sometimes you can talk to you family, because it is inside your family, but not with friends or other people, so yeah, there is a secrecy.
Another factor that prevented women from talking to friends about the abuse was worry about gossip in the local Mexican community in the United States. Several participants in St. Louis believed that news of their problems would spread quickly, bringing her great shame. This concern was also raised by several of the service providers in St. Louis. This worry is vividly expressed by a participant who endured years of abuse:
Apenas se (the worry) me está quitando un poquito pero porque (daughter’s influence). Está (daughter says), “mamá a la gente usted no tiene que darle explicaciones de nada, y que la gente, hable, que diga, al fin y al cabo nosotros sabemos nuestros verdaderos problemas,” pero . . . para mi es un trauma que la gente lo supiera, o era un trauma porque ya tengo pues de (daughter’s support) para acá como que ella me, se me baja un poquito. . . . [It (the concern) is just now leaving me a little bit, but because of (daughter’s influence). She (daughter) says, “Mom, you don’t have to give any explanations to anybody about anything. And let the people talk, that they say, at the end of it all, we know about our real problems.” But, for me it’s a trauma that the people would find out, or it was a trauma because now I have, well, with (daughter’s support) here, like she, with me, it lessens a little bit . . .]
Female friendship networks: Sisterhood of the single mothers
Regardless of the norm about disclosing the abuse outside the family, four of the participants in the St. Louis and seven in the New York subsamples turned to female friends for help. The difference that emerged between the two subsamples appears related to how participants met the friends to whom they turned for help. St. Louis participants tended to meet the helpful friend at their child’s school or church. One woman in the New York subsample met her helpful friend at her child’s school, but the rest knew their friend through work or around the neighborhood. Two patterns emerged regarding how participants chose the female friend they told of their situation. One had to do with the characteristics of the friend, the other with how the friend was identified.
Most often, the friends were single women who had some problems with their own husbands. When I asked a 31-year-old mother of five children how she selected this particular friend to tell about her situation and ask for help, she responded,
Porque igual ella, yo sabía que era ella sola porque no tenía, digamos casi las amigas que tenía que son mis amigas, eran como dice, personas que no tuvieran marido porque se molestaban, yo sabía que ellos se iban a molestar o . . . por eso digamos que ella era mi amiga: porque ella no tenía . . . digamos marido, y tenía . . . tenía niños . . . pero igual había pasado por eso. [Because she too, I knew that she was alone because she didn’t have the friends that I had, that were my friends, people that didn’t have husbands because they were bothered. I knew that they (husbands) were going to be bothered or . . . for that she was my friend, because she didn’t have a husband, and she had, she had children . . . but she had also been through this.]
She was aware that this woman was a single mother, and if she was a single mother, it had to be because her husband mistreated her. This was one of a number of examples of how women sought out women who showed clues that they might have experienced similar problems with their husband.
Several examples were given by the participants of how the women who are alone, or struggling with little help from their partner, have created their own network of women they turn to for information and support. A 27-year-old mother of two young girls describes how this network helped her find information about how to obtain child support from the father of her four sons through court:
El cuando quería pasaba gastos, cuando . . . cuando realmente él se sentía capaz de . . . y cuando no pues . . . nos dejaba. Entonces yo ahora como mujer veo que entre mujeres platicamos y me dijeron,”por qué tú no llevas a corte?” [He, when he wanted to, (he) pay the expenses . . . when he really felt capable of . . . and when he didn’t, well . . . he would leave us. So now I, as a woman, I see that between women we talk. And they told me, “Why don’t you take him to court?”]
This manner of looking for cues indicating that someone may be sympathetic to your situation and has access to needed information about the system was common among the participants seeking help outside the family. Although a 32-year-old mother of a young girl did not reveal to her friend that she was experiencing abuse, she asked her how to apply for public assistance. She describes how she knew this woman would have access to such information:
Y a ella le dan también porque ella tenía su marido pero ella tiene dos niñas y su marido no trabaja, no le da dinero y ella tiene que ver la forma como darle de comer a sus hijas, y ella me dijo que fuéramos ahí, que ahí me iban a ayudar. [And they give it to her too because she has her husband, but she has two girls and her husband doesn’t work. He doesn’t give her money and she has to find a way to feed her daughters and she told me we should go there, that there they would help me.]
It should be noted that participants who turned to their friends tended not to have family nearby possessing the needed information. Also, these participants tended to be less isolated because they worked or had already left the relationship. The participants experiencing extreme isolation did not have the opportunity to access these women in the informal social network. Information, when received from a friend who had a similar background and an abuse history, tended to be acted upon by the participant. In fact, women were willing to take bold steps, such as call the police, obtain orders of protection, or file for child support, when it was recommended by women who had already taken those steps with positive or effective outcomes. Female friends accompanied some women to critical appointments and meetings in the help-seeking process. These female friends were also helpful in providing a model for surviving and living well as a single mother. This counteracted the economic fears about how to support a family alone.
Discussion and Implications
Informal social networks, particularly family of origin and female friendship networks, were critical in the help-seeking process for this sample of Mexican immigrant women. The participants most often first turned to mothers and sisters for help. This is consistent with the findings of another study of help-seeking patterns, which found that Latinas turn to mothers and sisters first for help (Yoshioka, Gilbert, El-Bassel, & Baig-Amin, 2003). Siblings were often the first to learn of the abuse and were crucial in providing emotional support, information about the local social service system, and instrumental and economic assistance. It also appears that children were a key source of assistance, which is consistent with other research (Brabeck & Guzman, 2008).
Almost all of the participants resisted telling their mothers, out of shame for the problems in the relationship or concern for their parents’ well-being. This appears related to the honor and love they have for their parents. This study found that respeto is a salient factor in Latinas’ reluctance to seek help from parents, but not precisely due to deference to their father or male head-of-household. Many of the participants resisted disclosing the abuse due to the shame they felt about defying their parents’ warnings (their mother’s, in particular) about their partner, who had turned out to be abusive. Nevertheless, they were received positively once they told parents of the abuse. Family members became suspicious when they observed the participants becoming isolated, indicating an awareness among the families of abuse as a phenomenon that includes controlling and isolating tactics as well as physical abuse. The family of nearly all participants did not approve of the way she was being treated and most suggested that she leave the relationship. This was even true among participants whose mothers also experienced abuse. These findings regarding the reaction of family members to intimate abuse contradict other research, which has found that abuse is often considered acceptable or normal in the Latino community (Crandall, Senturia, Sullivan, & Shiu-Thornton, 2005; Klevens et al., 2007; Molina & Abel, 2010). The bond between the participants and their parents (their mothers, in particular) appears to be rooted in both respeto, in which daughters, no matter what their age, maintain profound respect for their parents, and gender-based expectations that parents (mothers, in particular) will always put their children’s needs ahead of their own. This underscores the complexity of the role various sets of cultural expectations play in the response to IPV.
A challenge many families had in helping their abused sisters or daughters was the lack of economic means to protect them. Nevertheless, family members, particularly siblings, appear to have a protective effect. Remarkably, despite distance caused by migration and abusive tactics intended to sever family ties, participants maintained strong and sustained emotional connections to their parents and siblings. Moreover, the findings of this study suggest that parents and siblings play a critical and substantial role in providing Mexican immigrant women with the emotional and concrete support needed to heal from abuse and survive on their own.
These findings have implications for the structure and administration of services assisting battered Mexican immigrant women and their families. Many domestic violence programs, particularly shelters, are reasonably concerned about protecting the safety of their clients and staff by maintaining the confidentiality of their facilities. However, rules surrounding confidentiality, as well as encouragement that women establish their new home in an unfamiliar neighborhood, may create obstacles in maintaining family ties. Domestic violence counselors and other service providers working with Mexican immigrants should examine avenues for maintaining or re-establishing connection with family that may have diminished as a result of the abuse. It may also be beneficial for service providers to proactively explore with their Mexican clients ways to incorporate family members into safety planning, trauma recovery, socialization, childcare procurement, educational and job-seeking plans.
While family of origin tends to be a source of strength, the same cannot always be said for the participants’ in-laws. While there were a few instances in which in-laws were helpful, in most cases they either made no effort to protect the participant or were directly abusive. These findings suggest that police officers responding to a domestic incident in which a woman is residing with her husband’s family be aware of the potential for in-law abuse and assess for it. Furthermore, information gathered from in-laws at the scene of a violent incident may not be reliable. Based on the high prevalence of in-law abuse found here, domestic violence counselors should assess for in-law abuse and create safety plans that protect against multiple abusers.
In addition to family of origin, female friends were also critical in the help-seeking process. A noteworthy aspect of this finding is that only female friends who themselves had experience with abusive partners were sought for help. All of the women in whom the participants confided had disclosed some experience of abuse or problems with their partner, thus making the participants feel safe sharing this sensitive information. There is a belief expressed by many of the participants in the study that Mexican women who did not have problems with their husbands would not understand or would judge them harshly, thus indicating a perceived stigma associated with abuse and being a single or divorced mother. This clandestine pattern of looking for cues that indicate someone in the informal social network might be sympathetic (and thus safe) or possessed needed knowledge is similar to the pattern undocumented immigrants use to seek help about how to get jobs, find apartments, and access resources in the local community. These confidants provided critical support, information about the system, and suggestions for getting help. Most notable is that participants were willing to take unexpectedly bold action—for example, to contact the police, seek court orders of protection, and obtain counseling—when it was recommended by these friends.
Differences emerged in the composition of female friendships and resultant help-seeking behavior between the St. Louis and New York subsamples. This could be related to the different economic conditions in New York and St. Louis, yielding different working patterns between the two subsamples. Participants in St. Louis were less likely to work while they were in the relationship. The few who did work tended to work in isolated types of jobs (e.g., cleaning homes, childcare) or in settings where they could be monitored by their partner’s friends and family, thus providing fewer opportunities to develop friendships. The New York participants reported that due to economic necessity and the high cost of living, their partners encouraged them to work. Common work settings in New York were restaurants. These settings provided more opportunity to meet other Mexican immigrant women with similar social circumstances. In addition, the process of having to use public transportation to get to work offered opportunities for the women to engage with and learn about the local community, thus making them less socially isolated than the St. Louis subsample. In general, the New York subsample seemed more capable of navigating the local community than the St. Louis subsample. It should be noted, however, that this may be an artifact of recruitment bias.
Findings regarding the powerful role of female friends suggest that peer advocacy and outreach programs would be effective in reaching and assisting this highly vulnerable and hidden population. Some of the most reputable domestic violence programs serving immigrants and refugees in the country (e.g., Asian Women’s Shelter, License to Freedom, Mujeres Unidas por un Nuevo Amanecer (MUNA) Legal Clinic) have peer advocacy and/or outreach programs (Family Violence Prevention Fund for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2009). Formalized advocacy and outreach interventions involving Mexican immigrant survivors of abuse need to be designed, implemented, and evaluated. Impact evaluations could also be done on an existing program.
Strengths and Limitations
While this study comes with strengths, the challenges in accessing and conducting culturally competent research with this group of women, combined with the precautions that were needed to secure their safety, also created some limitations.
The hidden and high-risk nature of IPV made it necessary to recruit samples from domestic violence service providers. As there were difficulties in recruiting a suitable sample size in St. Louis alone, a second city was included in the design of the study. All of the participants in the New York subsample were recruited from domestic violence programs. While the use of the New York and St. Louis subsamples allowed for the emergence of cultural and structural factors from two contexts that could be compared and contrasted, the recruitment procedures for each of these sites introduced bias. Thus, it is impossible to conclude that differences in the two subsamples were related to differences in context or experience with the domestic violence social service system.
In spite of the recruitment challenges, both the size and the composition of the sample used in this study are strong. Twenty-nine participants, a sufficient sample size (Creswell, 2007; Morse, 2000), were interviewed for approximately three hours. The St. Louis and New York subsamples were demographically similar and included women who represented the broad spectrum of educational levels and had a balance of women from both urban and rural regions throughout multiple states in Mexico. Due to the high risk that it posed to the battered women and the inherent challenges in locating this population, the batterers were not interviewed. However, the addition of the key informant sample provided critical contextual information and corroborated the findings regarding the abuse phenomenon.
The author is not Mexican or Latina, and thus there remains the risk of some interpretation errors. To limit the incidence of errors, she utilized and consulted with native Spanish-speaking staff available at the Latino Center for Family Research at George Warren Brown School of Social Work of Washington University in St. Louis during the interview and analysis phase of the study. Likewise, the ethnic background of the author and the translators (half of whom were Latina, but none of whom were Mexican) may have influenced the type of information shared.
Conclusion
The findings suggest that Mexican immigrant women suffering IPV initially turn to family and female friends for help. Disclosure typically results in the provision of emotional support, critical information about the social service system, and instrumental assistance. These findings have implications for the delivery of formal domestic violence services to this community, as well as the response of police and other formal service systems.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
We are deeply grateful to the women who participated in this study, as well as to Catholic Charities Family and Community Services, Sanctuary for Families, Santa Cecilia’s Church, and the Violence Intervention Program for their invaluable assistance.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Support for this article was provided by the Center for Latino Family Research.