Department of Population Health, Grossman School of Medicine, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Global Public Health, New York University, 708 Broadway, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2022 Jun 8;22(1):1147. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13489-y.
Sexual violence is a growing issue faced across diverse South Asian American communities under the backdrop of a distinct religious and cultural environment that intersects with the ability to prevent and manage this public health crisis. There is also growing attention on sexual violence experienced by younger or second-generation South Asian Americans, although little is known on the prevalence of this violence and its impact on health outcomes. Using data from a community-driven sexual violence survey, this study describes the experience of sexual violence and related help seeking behaviors and mental health outcomes among 18-34-year-old South Asian Americans living near the New York (NY) State region.
Participants were recruited via social media to participate in an anonymous survey developed in partnership with an advisory board of South Asian young adult representatives. Data was analyzed descriptively and through adjusted logistic regression models.
Overall, responses from 335 sexual assault survivors were analyzed. Types of assault experienced included no-contact (97.6%), contact (75.2%), rape attempts (50.2%), rape (44.6%), and multiple rape (19.6%). Many reported perpetrators were South Asian (65.1%) or family members (25.1%). Only 27.6% indicated they had reported assaults to authorities or received services. In adjusted analyses, odds of help seeking were higher among participants who were older (AOR:1.10, 95%CI:1.02-1.20), were a sexual minority (lesbian, gay, bisexual) (1.98, 1.05-3.71), had a family member as the perpetrator (1.85, 1.01-3.40), had lower disclosure stigma (1.66, 1.16-2.44), and experienced depression (2.16, 1.10-4.47). Odds of depression were higher among sexual minority participants and lower among those with higher sexual assault disclosure stigma (3.27, 1.61-7.16; 0.68, 0.50-0.93).
Findings call for greater targeted policy interventions to address the prevention of sexual violence among young South Asian Americans and greater focus on improving help seeking behaviors and improving mental health outcomes among survivors.
性暴力是一个日益严重的问题，在不同的南亚裔美国人社区中都存在，这些社区的背景是独特的宗教和文化环境，这与预防和管理这一公共卫生危机的能力交织在一起。人们也越来越关注年轻的或第二代南亚裔美国人所经历的性暴力问题，尽管人们对这种暴力的普遍程度及其对健康结果的影响知之甚少。本研究使用来自社区驱动的性暴力调查的数据，描述了居住在纽约（NY）州附近的 18-34 岁南亚裔美国人的性暴力经历以及相关的寻求帮助行为和心理健康结果。
通过社交媒体招募参与者参加一项由南亚裔青年代表咨询委员会合作开发的匿名调查。数据采用描述性和调整后的逻辑回归模型进行分析。
总体而言，对 335 名性侵犯幸存者的回复进行了分析。所经历的攻击类型包括无接触（97.6%）、接触（75.2%）、强奸未遂（50.2%）、强奸（44.6%）和多次强奸（19.6%）。许多报告的犯罪者是南亚裔（65.1%）或家庭成员（25.1%）。只有 27.6%的人表示他们已经向当局报告了袭击事件或接受了服务。在调整后的分析中，年龄较大（AOR：1.10，95%CI：1.02-1.20）、性少数群体（同性恋、双性恋、无性恋）（1.98，1.05-3.71）、犯罪者为家庭成员（1.85，1.01-3.40）、披露耻辱感较低（1.66，1.16-2.44）和经历抑郁（2.16，1.10-4.47）的参与者寻求帮助的可能性更高。性少数群体参与者的抑郁几率更高，而性侵犯披露耻辱感较高的参与者的抑郁几率较低（3.27，1.61-7.16；0.68，0.50-0.93）。
研究结果呼吁采取更有针对性的政策干预措施，以防止南亚裔年轻人群中发生性暴力行为，并更加注重改善幸存者的寻求帮助行为和改善心理健康结果。
