Shame, heritage affect support-seeking

Survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) often face many barriers to help-seeking. Shame is a common emotion for IPV survivors and can hinder their desire to seek help, yet little is known about how racial-ethnic heritage and the experience of shame affects help-seeking desires. The aims of the current study were to (1) determine if survivors from different racialethnic heritage backgrounds will experience higher levels of shame than others, (2) examine the relationship between shame and use of formal and informal support systems, and (3) determine whether the relationship between shame and help-seeking differs among survivors of different racial-ethnic backgrounds