Stavroula Kyriakakis - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Stavroula Kyriakakis

Journal of aggression, maltreatment & trauma, Mar 21, 2024

Page 1. Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Electronic Thes... more Page 1. Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Electronic Theses and Dissertations 1-1-2009 THE ROLE OF CULTURAL AND STRUCTURAL FACTORS IN THE MANIFESTATION OF ABUSE AND HELP ...

Development Policy Review, Feb 24, 2020

Motivation: Intergenerational wealth transfers are economically important and have direct consequ... more Motivation: Intergenerational wealth transfers are economically important and have direct consequences on the distribution-or redistribution-of household and community wealth. In sub-Saharan Africa, documented instances of weakly enforced statutory laws and outdated or misaligned customary laws create a space for practices that undermine the fair and smooth transition of wealth across generations. Purpose: This study presents data drawn from a larger mixed-methods study that evaluated a succession (inheritance) curriculum offered in a farming community in Kenya. Approach and Methods: A subset of intervention participants (n = 58) ranging in age from 20 to 78 years were invited to participate in post-test focus group discussions. Discussions followed a semistructured interview guide and included questions that evaluated the succession curriculum. Findings: In addition to evaluating the intervention, emerging conversations centred on the economic and socio-cultural significance of intergenerationally held family wealth. The narrative from these focus groups underscores the importance the community places on family-held wealth and how failures in the financial socialization process have compromised the generational wealth-transfer system. Further, both younger and older participants identified youth unemployment and substance misuse as factors that have led to a breakdown in the wealth-transfer process. This breakdown can and has resulted in the loss of household wealth, as well as in the marginalization of vulnerable individuals including women and children. Implications: This article concludes by identifying mutable factors that have implications for economic empowerment policies and programs. This includes strengthening parental financial capabilities and facilitating access to legal resources to facilitate wealth transfers.

Journal of Hiv/aids & Social Services, Jul 3, 2015

These authors explore the use of self-disclosure and third-party disclosure of positive HIV seros... more These authors explore the use of self-disclosure and third-party disclosure of positive HIV serostatus among low-income parents. Using a grounded theory approach, face-to-face interviews were conducted with participants from Nairobi and Central provinces in Kenya. The findings indicate that disclosure is effective in procuring resources related with formal social services in such a way as to mitigate, if not counteract, the deleterious effect of HIV/AIDS on household wealth and intergenerational educational attainment. The findings suggest the encouragement of disclosure as a way to access services designed to enhance the capacities of low-income families impacted by HIV/AIDS.

System Dynamics Review, Jul 1, 2009

ABSTRACT Domestic violence is a major social problem. In the United States, the failure of commun... more ABSTRACT Domestic violence is a major social problem. In the United States, the failure of communities and police departments to intervene resulted in a push to implement pro- and mandatory arrest policies for domestic violence. These policies have led to an unexpected increase in the number of victim arrests. Competing explanations have been offered. This paper describes the development of a system dynamics model of victim arrests. Results of model structure analysis suggest that these policies may have created or strengthened a crossover mechanism that shifts the risk of arrests in domestic violence cases from aggressors to victims. Model analysis also demonstrates how the changing role of cooperation between advocates and police can help explain the trends in victim arrests. Implications for research and policy are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Domestic violence is a major social problem worldwide. In the United States, the failure of commu... more Domestic violence is a major social problem worldwide. In the United States, the failure of communities and police departments to intervene resulted in a push to adopt and implement pro and mandatory arrest policies for domestic violence. These policies have led to an unexpected increase in the number of arrests of women. Competing explanations have been offered. This paper describes the development of a system dynamics model of women arrested for domestic violence. Results suggest that these policies may have created or strengthened a crossover mechanism that shifts the risk of arrests in domestic violence cases from men to women. Model analysis demonstrates how the changing role of cooperation between advocates and police can help explain the trends in women arrests. Implications for research and policy are discussed.

System Dynamics Review, 2009

International Journal of Sociology

Violence Against Women, 2021

This phenomenological study, consisting of individual interviews with a sample of 30 women engage... more This phenomenological study, consisting of individual interviews with a sample of 30 women engaged in sex work, examines the intimate relationships of women engaged in sex work in Barbados. Participants often entered relationships with men they met while engaged in sex work. Most experienced relationships that became transactional, abusive, and exploitative. Intimate partner violence (IPV) challenged their ability to negotiate condom use with intimate partners placing them at risk for HIV. A cycle emerged of entering relationships to exit the violent conditions of sex work and then re-entering sex work to escape IPV. Implications for mental health, HIV prevention, IPV, and empowerment services are described.

with at-risk populations: Design strategies from a study with unauthorized immigrant women experi... more with at-risk populations: Design strategies from a study with unauthorized immigrant women experiencing intimate abuse

Development Policy Review, 2019

Qualitative Social Work, 2014

Social science research with vulnerable populations is necessary in order to address social and h... more Social science research with vulnerable populations is necessary in order to address social and health problems among those in most need; yet, this research is fraught with inherent risks to its participants. Using the recent experience of conducting a study of Mexican immigrant women’s experience of intimate partner violence and help-seeking, the authors describe strategies used to prevent harm to participants. For this community of women, participation in research has the potential to expose them to physical, psychological, economic, and legal harm. Safety protocols are discussed in the areas of recruitment, interviewing, data management, and the report of findings. These foremost strategies inform the safe design of research with other similarly at-risk populations.

Violence and Victims, 2012

This phenomenological qualitative study examines intimate partner violence (IPV) experienced by a... more This phenomenological qualitative study examines intimate partner violence (IPV) experienced by a sample of 29 Mexican immigrant women residing in New York and St. Louis. The findings reveal important insights about culturally specific abuse tactics employed by batterers and the forms of abuse that are experienced as most hurtful to the survivors. Ten different abusive tactics emerged: verbal, economic, physical, sexual, and extended family abuse, social isolation, physical abuse of children, stalking and monitoring, stolen bride, and sex trafficking. Cultural values and expectations appear to be inextricably linked to how the participants characterized the severity of each of the abusive tactics as evidenced by which abusive behaviors the participants found most hurtful. The findings will help service providers have a better understanding of the role cultural context plays in the IPV experiences of Mexican immigrant women.

Journal of Religion, Spirituality & Aging, 2011

Qualitative data were gathered during a spiritually focused intervention with older women. Partic... more Qualitative data were gathered during a spiritually focused intervention with older women. Participants (n = 36) had experienced some combination of childhood sexual or physical abuse, emotional abuse, domestic violence, and/or sexual assault over their life span. The women described an array of positive spiritual coping strategies, including their persistent action to find God by transcending negative or "man-made" images of God given to them by their religious traditions. They reported persistence in their faith journeys despite spiritual struggles with God, clergy, and their church communities. These findings have implications for mental health practitioners and clergy who work with older women.

Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2019

Involvement in treatment for intimate partner violence and abuse (IPV/A) perpetration is often li... more Involvement in treatment for intimate partner violence and abuse (IPV/A) perpetration is often limited to those who are arrested and convicted of domestic violence offenses. Consequently, the majority of research into partner abuse intervention programs (PAIPs; also known as batterer intervention programs [BIPs]) has utilized data from court-mandated participants despite the existence of voluntary programs. Therefore, little is known about the experiences of voluntary and non-court-mandated BIP/PAIP participants. Using an interpretive phenomenological analysis, this study sought to understand how participants perceived their lived experience in seeking help from a voluntary BIP/PAIP serving Latino men. Men volunteering for this study participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews ( N = 16). The findings reveal that the decision to engage in a BIP/PAIP voluntarily is process laden. Participants described the process as involving a breakdown in the health of their intimate relati...

Journal of HIV/AIDS & Social Services, 2015

International Journal of School Social Work, 2020

Many researchers view schools as the ideal setting to study social and behavioral interventions w... more Many researchers view schools as the ideal setting to study social and behavioral interventions with youth. As trusted community-based organizations, schools are natural partners for social work researchers who focus on bridging the needs of the most vulnerable populations. Awareness and consideration of critical issues related to conducting research within the school system enables social work researchers to plan and conduct rigorous studies while developing sustainable partnerships with schools. This article outlines key ethical and methodological challenges of conducting school-based survey research, and shares lessons learned and recommendations from the evaluation of a dating violence prevention curriculum implemented in U.S. suburban high schools.

More inquiry is needed into how Mexican immigrant survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) ar... more More inquiry is needed into how Mexican immigrant survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) are seeking help, to improve interventions designed to reach this isolated and vulnerable population. This grounded theory study, using a sample of 29 Mexican immigrant survivors of IPV and 15 key informants, examines the helpseeking process. Findings indicate that informal networks, particularly family and female friends, play a critical role in providing assistance and linking women to formal services. These findings have implications for the delivery of formal domestic violence services to this community as well as the response of police and other formal service systems. Keywords help-seeking, immigrant, informal networks, intimate partner violence, Mexican Studies suggest that Latinas experience higher rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) than White, non-immigrant women (Caetano, Field, Ramisetty-Mikler, & McGrath, 2005; Field & Caetano, 2005), and cultural and structural factors pose unique challenges to Latinas in finding solutions for the abuse (Raj & Silverman, 2002). More inquiry is needed on how this population is currently seeking help and assistance, to improve interventions designed to reach this isolated and highly vulnerable group of