Immigrant Acculturation, Intimate Partner Violence and Mental Health Problems among Canadian Women

• In Event: 242 - Section on International Migration Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 04. Health of U.S. Immigrants

Abstract

Objectives: Report 5 year prevalence of IPV and other types of partner violence. Test whether the mental health of highly acculturated immigrant women would be more negatively impacted by IPV than lower acculturation immigrant and Canadian-born women, indicating support for the Healthy Immigrant Effect.
Methods: Using 2009 General Social Survey-Victimization data of Canadian women, crude estimates and adjusted logistic regressions were used to 1) estimate the prevalence of types of partner violence, and 2) examine associations of IPV to mental health problems across levels of acculturation.
Results: For all women, 7.8% had recently experienced IPV. Lower acculturation immigrant women (4.0%) were significantly less likely than higher acculturation immigrant (10.7%) and Canadian-born women (8.5%) to experience IPV. IPV-associated mental health problems were significant for women of each acculturation level, but the association was significantly stronger for higher acculturation immigrant women.
Conclusions: Types of partner violence need to be examined to understand the prevalence, relationships, and consequences of IPV. Higher acculturation immigrant women were at greater risk of mental health problems associated to IPV than lower immigrant and Canadian born women.

Authors

• Marianne S. Noh, Western University

• Marilyn Ford-Gilboe, Western University