Overall Research Project Description Tackling IPV requires simultaneous interventions to address structural barriers to familial as well as individual agency (Pells et al., 2016). But Meyer (2016) also advocated for early interventions to strengthen the support that is needed to identify IPV. To this effect, a balanced policy approach was proposed for an increase in social capital in terms of collective efficacy, sense of community, and neighborhood cohesion (Goodmark, 2018), especially in ethnically diverse communities e.g., Asian Indians (Voith, 2019; Yoshihama et al., 2012), to influence social disapproval of IPV. Direct interventions for informal supporters of the survivors are key to IPV management in the U.K.’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Gregory et al., 2017), but we do not know how to adopt this approach for different settings. Urging to integrate experiential education in social network interventions, Edwards and Ullman (2016) argue that providing opportunities to role-play one’s responses in a supportive manner to individuals who disclose assault could strengthen their actual social support. While preliminary results of such an intervention are promising (Edwards & Ullman, 2016), understanding the role of stigma in social reactions to IPV disclosure is critical (Yndo et al., 2019), only then can the bystander intervention to IPV can be an effective feedback loop (Pagliaro et al., 2022). So, engaging relational ties before abuse, may reduce the magnitude of stigma that influences their support.

To this end, a mixed methods study will be conducted wherein qualitative phase will include interactions with survivors of IPV to learn about the role of social networks in their journeys from abuse to recovery, while a quantitative phase will identify the types of interpersonal network ties (INTs) who are currently available to women at-risk of IPV, and the strength of such relationships, and whether that determines potential IPV-related social support and help-seeking/disclosure.