Bushra Sabri, PhD, MSW
Principal Investigator
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (R01MD013863)
PROBLEM
Intimate partner violence (IPV) disproportionately affects immigrant women. However, immigrant women remain an understudied and underserved population in need for evidence-based rigorously evaluated culturally competent interventions that address their health and safety needs. Such interventions are especially needed for who are even more isolated, unable to come in for in-person services and need continued engagement for support via technology-based interventions (i.e., web-based online computer-aided or mobile communication devices-aided).
SOLUTON
This research study will evaluate
It’s weWomen Plus
, a culturally informed technology-based intervention specifically designed for immigrant women to address their health, safety and empowerment needs. Current evidence-based interventions for women in abusive relationships do not take into account culture of immigrant populations in the US. This intervention will be useful for practitioners to provide more culturally informed services. It will also be useful for immigrant women who face numerous barriers in accessing in-person services. Women can access the intervention from any location in the US.
PROCEDURES
For the first stage randomization, participants will be randomly assigned to an online intervention or the usual care control arm and safety, mental health and empowerment outcomes will be assessed at 3, 6 and 12 months follow up. For the second stage randomization, women who do not report significant improvement in safety and in empowerment from baseline to follow up points (i.e., non-responders) will be re- randomized to the augmented intervention components (text only or a combination of text and phone) developed in the formative phase. Data on outcomes (safety and empowerment) will be assessed at 6 and 12 months of re- randomization. By re-randomizing participants, the study will assess the relative effectiveness of two strategies for augmentation (text only or a combination of text and phone) on safety and empowerment outcomes among the non-responders of the online intervention. In addition, the study will compare the non-responder group of women to the responder group of the online intervention to determine if the strategies of augmentation brought the non-responders to the level of responders on safety and empowerment. Finally, the study will identify facilitators and barriers to the adoption, implementation and maintenance of use of the original and augmented intervention by programs serving immigrant women and design strategies to decrease barriers and build on strengths.
For more information on It’s weWomen Plus project, contact:
Bushra Sabri, PhD, MSW, Principal Investigator: It’s weWomen Plus study
Room 456, 525 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD, 21205; Email: [email protected]>; Phone: 410-955-7105
Dr. Jacquelyn C. Campbell
Dr. Nancy Glass
Dr. Nancy Perrin
Dr. Sarah Murray
Sabri, B., Njie-Carr, V. P.S., Messing, J., Glass, N., Brockie, T., Hanson, G., Case, J., & Campbell, J.C. (2019). The weWomen and ourCircle randomized controlled trial protocol: A web-based intervention for immigrant, refugee and indigenous women with intimate partner violence experiences. Contemporary Clinical Trials, 76, 79-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2018.11.013
Sabri, B., Nnawulezi, N., Njie-Carr, V., Messing, J., Ward-Lasher, A., Alvarez, C., & Campbell, J.C. (2018). Multilevel risk and protective factors for intimate partner violence among African, Asian and Latina immigrant and refugee women: Perceived needs for safety planning interventions. Race and Social Problems, 10 (4), 348-365. 10.1007/s12552-018-9247-z
Sabri, B., Campbell, J.C., & Messing, J. (2018). Intimate partner homicides in the United States, 2003-2013: A comparison of immigrants and non-immigrants. Journal of Interpersonal Violence; https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260518792249