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

研究生Margaret S. Winchester将在Janet W. McGrath博士的指导下，对慢性疾病条件下女性地位和脆弱性的多重决定因素之间的相互作用进行民族志研究。在获得治疗和延长预期寿命的时代，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，一个在城市，一个在农村。该研究人员将采取多方利益相关者的方法来探索影响妇女感染艾滋病毒的因素。她将收集有关艾滋病毒治疗方面的政府政策、服务提供和妇女经验的数据。她将会见政府代表以及社会、医疗和法律服务提供者。她将对每个地点的艾滋病毒阳性妇女样本进行人口调查，并辅以管理家庭权力关系的标准量表。在收集数量数据之后，将对一个分样本进行更深入的访谈，重点是服务的利用、亲密伴侣暴力的性别规范、亲密伴侣暴力和待遇以及妇女对权利和法律保护的认识。这项研究很重要，因为它将通过将利益相关者和艾滋病政策制定者的数据与现在长期患有慢性疾病的人的生活经历结合起来，有助于更新权力的等级模型。这项研究还将有助于制定政策，消除长期有效治疗的微妙障碍。最后，本研究支持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.