This is a small grant proposal to study partner violence against Native American women. The project utilizes a two-stage approach and combines qualitative and quantitative methods. First, a qualitative interview study with 50 Native American women will be conducted to elicit a better understanding of partner violence among Native Americans. Half of the qualitative interviews will be with women who report having experienced partner violence and half with those who have not experienced partner violence. The results of the qualitative component of the study will be used to develop a culturally appropriate structured interview questionnaire that will be administered in the second year of the project (n=400). The study will determine lifetime and one-year prevalence rates of physical, emotional, and sexual partner-perpetrated violence and injury in pregnant and non-pregnant Native American women and teens from several Plains tribes, and will examine mediating factors including alcohol and drug use and social support. The sample will be drawn from Plains Native American women participating in the WIC program in Western Oklahoma.
