International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience
Open Access

Abstract

Latin America has above-average rates of domestic violence. This trend is reflected in the prevalence of intimate partner violence in Bolivia. Bolivia is also one of the We conducted an evaluation of a 15-year family intervention implemented by an international development and humanitarian aid organization in Bolivia. The intervention involved pastoral counseling between male and female partners as well as with children in families with domestic violence issues. Topics discussed during partner counseling sessions included gender equality, inter-personal communication, conflict resolution, child rights and family values. Female partners also received one-on-one counseling with a community pastor. Up to 30 families, who participated in the intervention, will complete a questionnaire measuring their exposure to various forms of violence in the home, gender beliefs and norms, marital quality, parenting styles, alcohol use, spirituality and family functioning. The same questionnaire will be completed by both male and female partners. An adolescent child in the family will be asked to complete a separate questionnaire assessing his/her relationship with each parent, exposure to violence at home, resilience and spirituality, A subset of families will then be sampled from the questionnaires for followup in-depth interviews. Up to 10 family units will be interviewed, including the father, mother and adolescent child. Qualitative data will be recorded, transcribed and analyzed using Nvivo software with a set of predetermined codes. The research team will develop new thematic codes during data analysis using a grounded theory approach. Findings from this study may include the potentially harmful effects of exposure to violence at home, alcohol use by a parental figure, family conflict, parenting style and gender inequality on health and well-being outcomes in adults and children living in Bolivia. Data may also provide case studies that highlight the protective effects of spirituality, social support, parenting styles and family functioning in promoting adaptive outcomes. We will conduct this study September-October 2014 and will be able to provide an updated abstract with preliminary findings later this fall.

Biography

Christine Fu, PhD, is a Senior Program Research Specialist at World Vision United States, where she designs and carries out primary and secondary research and analysis on program effectiveness. Dr. Fu is a social and behavioural scientist with seven years of experience evaluating public health and poverty reduction programs in resource-poor settings internationally and domestically. She has expertise in quantitative and qualitative methods and research and evaluation designs. Dr. Fu has experience conducting social science evaluation of child well-being programs, as demonstrated by her research on disaster mental health and psychosocial supports of children and youth in China, psychosocial rehabilitation and recovery of out-of-school youth in Liberia, adolescent sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence in Uganda, and peer networks and social capital among HIV positive youth in the Caribbean. In addition, Dr. Fu has research experience in development economics and the multi-dimensionality of poverty, as demonstrated by her work on poverty-reduction and social development initiatives for the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management team at the World Bank.