Abstract
Purpose
While intimate partner violence (IPV) has been widely researched in the past several decades, there remains a need to investigate culturally specific ways to respond to IPV survivors. Clergy play a crucial role as respondents to IPV in the Korean American (KA) community, yet further investigation is needed on what variables positively influence clergy response to IPV survivors. Thus, this study sought to examine the impact of acculturation, adherence to Asian values, generational status, and clergy-mental health professional collaboration on KA clergy responses to instances of IPV in their congregations.
Method
A total of 84 KA pastors were recruited through snowball sampling and completed surveys measuring demographics, adherence to Asian values, acculturation, generational status, and level of clergy-mental health professional collaboration. One-way ANOVA and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS.
Results
Results revealed significant generational differences in IPV intervention and referral behavior. In addition, while acculturation significantly predicted IPV intervention, clergy-mental health professional collaboration also significantly predicted referral behavior and intervention behaviors even after generational status, acculturation, and adherence to Asian values were accounted for.
Conclusions
These findings suggest that acculturation and clergy-mental health professional collaboration are particularly relevant variables in facilitating safety-promoting IPV interventions and referral behavior among KA clergy.