Article South Asian Immigrant Women Who Have Survived Child Sexual Abuse: Resilience and Healing Anneliese A. Singh,' Danica G. Hays,2 Y. Barry Chung,3 and Laurel Watson4 Violence Against Women 16(4) 444-458 @ The Author(s) 2010 Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1077801210363976 http://vaw.sagepub.com SSAGE Abstract The current study is a phenomenological examination of the resilience strategies of South Asian immigrant women in the United States who survived child sexualabuse. Semistructured interviews (N = 5) and a focus group (N = 8) were analyzed to gain a deep structural understanding of participants' experiences of child sexual abuse and resilience. Findings included four subthemes of South Asian context (strict gender socialization, maintenance of family image, influence of ethnic identity, acculturative stressors) and five subthemes of resilience strategies (use of silence, sense of hope, South Asian social support, social advocacy, intentional self-care). Research and practice implications are discussed. Keywords child sexual abuse, resilience, South Asian women Considering the increasing numbers of South Asians immigrating to the United States (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000) and the rate of child sexual abuse in the general U.S. popula- tion of 16 per 1,000 persons (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002), it is likely that practitioners will work with South Asian immigrant women who have experi- enced child sexual abuse. Counseling and psychological research with South Asian women 'University of Georgia,Athens 2Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 3Northeastern University, Boston, MA 4Georgia State University, Atlanta Corresponding Author: Anneliese A. Singh, Counseling and Human Development Services, University of Georgia, 402 Aderhold Hall, Athens, GA 30602-7142 Email: asingh@uga.edu Downloaded fromvaw.sagepub.comat UNIV OF GEORGIA LIBRARIES on May 21, 2015
Singh et al. 445 in the United States have primarily focused on the systems of acculturative stress and value conflicts they must negotiate in the divide between their host and home cultures (Inman, Ladany, Constantine, & Morano, 2001; Singh & Hays, 2008). Although a rich body of multidisciplinary literature has examined South Asian women's experience of intimate part- ner violence (Abraham, 2000, 2006; DasGupta & Warrier, 1996; Ho, 1990; Kallivayalli, 2007; Mehrotra, 1999; Venkataramani-Kothari, 2007), there are no studies to date that have explored the impact of child sexual abuse on South Asian immigrant women in the United States (Singh, 2006). Despite this lack of research, it is critical that helping professionals understand how South Asian immigrant women's cultural backgrounds influence the resilience strategies they use in their healing from child sexual abuse. In seeking to understand their resilience processes and healing from child sexual abuse, it is also important to simultaneously endeavor to understand the pain underlying their resilience. The present study explores the cultural context and processes of resilience used by South Asian female survivors of child sexual abuse in an effort to highlight their voices and bring an end to their absence in the research literature. This article will explore the literature on women's resiliency and child sexual abuse, describe the design and methodologies of this study, present one case study for a nuanced reading of one participant,