Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Intersection of Intimate Partner Violence and Chronic Illness

研究生玛格丽特·S·温彻斯特将在珍妮特·W·麦格拉思博士的指导下，对女性地位的多种决定因素与慢性病条件下的脆弱性之间的相互作用进行人种学研究。在一个获得治疗机会增加和预期寿命延长的时代，了解长期疾病经历变得越来越重要。这项研究将在乌干达的两个地点进行，一个是城市，一个是农村。这位研究人员将采取多个利益相关者的方法来探索影响女性如何经历艾滋病毒感染的因素。她将收集有关政府政策、服务提供和妇女在艾滋病毒治疗方面的经验的数据。她将采访政府代表以及社会、医疗和法律服务提供者。她将对每个地点艾滋病毒阳性妇女的样本进行人口统计调查，并对家庭权力关系进行标准量表的辅助。在定量数据收集之后，将以分样本进行更密集的访谈，重点是服务利用、亲密伴侣暴力的性别规范、亲密伴侣暴力和治疗以及妇女的权利意识和法律保护。这项研究很重要，因为它将把利益相关者和艾滋病毒政策制定者的数据与那些现在长期患有慢性病的人的生活经历结合起来，从而有助于更新权力的分层模型。这项研究还将有助于制定政策，从长远来看，消除有效治疗的微妙障碍。最后，这项研究支持了社会科学家的研究生教育。

Graduate student Margaret S. Winchester, with the guidance of Dr. Janet W. McGrath, will undertake ethnographic research on the interactions between multiple determinants of female status and vulnerability under conditions of chronic illness. In an era of gains in access to treatment and lengthened life expectancies, understanding long-term illness experience has become increasingly critical. The research will be carried out in two sites in Uganda, one urban and one rural. The researcher will take a multiple stakeholders approach to exploring the factors that affect how women experience living with HIV. She will collect data on governmental policy, service provision, and women's experience in the context of HIV treatment. She will interview government representatives and social, medical, and legal service providers. She will conduct a demographic survey of a sample of HIV positive women in each site, supplemented by administering a standard scale on household power relationships. Quantitative data collection will be followed by more intensive interviews with a sub-sample, focusing on utilization of services, gender norms for intimate partner violence, intimate partner violence and treatment, and women's awareness of rights and legal protections. The research is important because it will contribute to updating hierarchical models of power, by conjoining data from stakeholders and HIV policy makers with the lived experiences of those now living long-term with chronic illness. The research also will help to develop policies to remove subtle barriers to effective treatment over the long run. Finally, the research supports the graduate education of a social scientist.