Outcomes for Immigrant Women and Their Children 4- Months Following Use of Safe Shelter and Justice Services: Implications for International Policy and Programs

Aims: Intimate partner violence (IPV) and immigration are phenomena affecting women worldwide. Women comprise a growing number of immigrants globally and often abused immigrant women face more challenges-- cultural, economic, and legal when compared to other groups of abused women. It has been found that immigrant women who report intimate partner violence suffer physical and psychological symptoms as do their children.

Methods: To determine the mental health, safety, and functioning outcomes for abused immigrant women and their children 4 months after seeking help at a shelter or applying for a protection order for the first time, a group of 104 immigrant women (41 women with documents and 63 women without documents) were assessed for, depression, anxiety, somatization, PTSD, safety, self-efficacy, lethality, and severity of abuse. The women also answered questions about the behavior of one of her children randomly chosen.

Results: Repeated measures factorial ANOVAs and confirmed with nonparametric tests showed, regardless of documentation status improvement on mental health measures of anxiety, depression, somatization, PTSD and self-efficacy. Women in this sample also reported less frequency and severity of violence and lower risk of being murdered. There was also a significant three way interaction of time, received protection order, and documentation status with self efficacy.

Conclusions: Specifics of outcome measures by documentation status will be discussed along with implications for international policy and programs for immigrant women with children who are abused and seek services for the first time