Community Research
UPDATE: We are proud to share that another academic publication, the American Journal of Epidemiology, has published an article about our community-based research methodology. MUA strives to ensure that academic research about our community is also community-led. In the article, we explain, along with our academic partners, how this methodology could be considered what we call a critical feminist epidemiology. The article can be accessed here.
This follows another publication in the academic journal Social Sciences detailing research on how MUA responded to community needs during the COVID-19 pandemic and the factors that helped us move forward. That article can be accessed (also in English) here.
Watch our video — Mujeres Unidas y Activas: Creating a New Cycle — about a USF/UCSF research study on how MUA's leadership development work helps transform the risk factors for domestic violence in immigrant families.
Background
MUA was founded in 1990 as a result of a research project on the lives of undocumented women. Since then, MUA has continued to collaborate with academic and community researchers to conduct studies and publish reports on the untapped experiences and perspectives of the immigrant community, as well as the impact of MUA members on US policies.
Recent studies
Over a three-year period from 2020 to 2022, MUA conducted two community-led process and impact assessment studies in collaboration with Professor of Cultural Anthropology Kathleen Coll (USF) and social epidemiologist Alison Cohen (UCSF). The research was supported in part by Blue Shield of California Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, with the technical collaboration of Strategic Prevention Solutions..
Key Research Questions
- Does MUA’s leadership development model break the cycle of domestic violence in an immigrant woman’s life? What about for her children and grandchildren? If so, how is this achieved?
- What is the longer-term impact of becoming a MUA leader on an immigrant woman’s life, and on her family?
- What elements have led MUA to be successful over the years in building a membership base and developing strong leaders? How did these elements affect MUA's ability to respond effectively to the needs of the community during the COVID-19 pandemic?
- How does developing immigrant women’s leadership lead to greater social change?
A community-led research team
The team consisted of 10 MUA staff members (all Latinx immigrants), two academic researchers, six graduate students and a project manager. The staff was trained by academic allies in qualitative and quantitative methods. The team agreed on sampling priorities and designed instruments for surveys, interviews and focus groups together. Staff trained academic allies in understanding the lived experiences and contextual factors revenant to tackling these research questions. MUA leadership ensured the research remained grounded in organizational ethics, values and priorities. Collective team analysis of research findings occurred throughout the process, including strategies for dissemination to community members of funders and academic audiences.
Methodology
Over a two-year period, the team conducted 254 surveys, 40 individual interviews and 7 focus groups with over 60 participants. Study participants included MUA members, their adult children and grandchildren, current and former staff members and long-time allies.
The surveys and focus groups explored how MUA’s organizing and leadership development model have evolved over time, MUA’s strengths and challenges and the impact of MUA on members’ lives and those of their families in terms of mental health, self-efficacy, social networks, domestic violence, childrearing practices and gender norms. Since the study took place during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we also gathered data about how MUA’s model was changing to meet the needs of a community in crisis.
Key Findings
Leadership Development is Violence Prevention
MUA was not founded as a domestic violence agency, per se; however, violence is prevalent in immigrant women’s lives.81% of members who participated in the survey are survivors of family violence, including physical, sexual, emotional and/or financial abuse. Studies show that survivors of violence are highly likely to experience revictimization, and children who witness domestic violence are far more likely to be victims or perpetrators of violence as adults than the general population.
Our study found that developing the leadership skill of survivors is an effective form of violence prevention. The longer a woman participates in MUA, the more likely she is to develop protective factors against violence in her life.
MUA participants reported strong levels of the following proven protective factors against violence: (Blue Shield of California, 2019)
-- High self-esteem: belief that they can set and meet their personal goals. 75% of women who participated for 6 months in MUA felt that they could meet their personal goals, while 96% of those who had participated for 5 - 10 years reported that they could do so.
-- A strong social network: over 90% of those surveyed said that participating in MUA had helped them develop meaningful new friendships.
— High scores on the Social Justice Scale: MUA members scored an average of 12 out of 16 on a survey intended to measure their attitudes and behaviors in terms of demanding social justice for themselves and others. This high score indicates a willingness to express and stand up for their rights.
Indeed, over 90% of those surveyed agreed that participating in MUA had reduced the level of violence in their lives, and the number of years spent participating in MUA correlated with decrease of violence in their lives.
MUA has combined mutual support groups and public policy campaigns to address gender violence against immigrant women since its founding in 1990. The research showed positive impacts of this work on individual members and their now-adult children.
Transforming the Root Causes of Violence
We found that MUA addresses the root causes of violence at three different levels:
— Oppressive social and economic systems
— Patriarchal gender norms
— Internalized oppression
Through interviews and focus groups, we identified the journey that women take to become leaders and make changes in their lives and their communities, transforming the systems that oppress them at each of the three levels.
Creating a New Cycle of Mutual Respect Across Multiple Generations
The changes that a woman experiences at MUA do not only impact her, but they ripple out to her children and grandchildren.
In two focus groups of MUA members who are now grandmothers, they spoke of how participating in MUA helped shift their concepts of childrearing to be less authoritarian and more nurturing, and the ripple effects they see in their children and grandchildren. Focus groups of adult children of MUA members showed that they report learning about healthy relationships and childrearing practices from their mothers, and that many of them attribute positive changes to their mothers’ participation in MUA.
MUA members and their children spoke not only about breaking the cycle of violence, but but about co-creating a more positive cycle of mutual respect and equality in the family. Watch the video above to hear from two adult children of MUA members.
Elements of Success in MUA's Organizing Model
The study identified key factors that have helped MUA succeed in building strong leaders who transform their lives and those of their families:
- Linking collective practices of personal transformation with building community power for structural change.
- Focusing on building strong personal relationships in a kind and supportive environment.
- Provide mutual aid based on respect and self-determination, without judgment or criticism.
- Peer Counseling Model: An understanding that women who have gone through their own healing process can help heal other women by sharing their stories and witnessing each other's stories, leading to collective healing.
- Support members to reflect on which parenting practices for their own children were healthy and which were not; collectively question and transform patriarchal gender norms in raising our children and grandchildren.
- Transformation of members from feeling like victims of violence and injustice to understanding that they are leaders and organizers with the power to create changes in our society.
