National Institute of Mental Health Awards Mona Mittal Grant to investigate HIV Risk Reduction for Women Reporting Intimate Partner Violence

Mona Mittal, assistant professor and director of clinical research, Department of Marriage and Family Therapy, received a five-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) that will support the research project, “HIV Risk Reduction for Women Reporting Intimate Partner Violence.”

As the rates for young adult women experiencing both HIV infection and intimate partner violence (IPV) escalate, emerging empirical evidence has drawn connections between IPV with HIV risk.However, there are very few empirically tested interventions for prevention and treatment targeting women who are at risk for HIV and experience violence in their intimate relationships. Several researchers have highlighted the importance of developing sexual risk reduction-interventions that address gender-based violence against women. Scholars are calling for HIV-prevention programs aimed at women to be more comprehensive by combining them with STD screening or with programs designed to reduce violence against women.

“Domestic violence research is a growing field where significant work needs to be done,’ says Mittal. “This research project funded by NIMH is an innovative necessity, with public health implications for improving health outcomes of women experiencing domestic violence.”

To address high sexual risk behaviors among women who experience gender-based violence in their intimate relationships, Mittal’s research will involve adapting and extending an existing information-motivation-behavioral skills (IMB) HIV prevention intervention developed by Michael Carey, professor and director of Syracuse University’s Center for Health and Human Behavior. The HIV and IPV-enhanced intervention will address both sexual risk reduction and IPV risk to help women acquire knowledge, skills, and strategies to reduce their risk for both HIV and IPV. 

The participants will consist of women who have experienced IPV in the last year, including women who might currently be in an abusive relationship. The proposed research will examine the feasibility of recruiting as well as assessing and extending the intervention to address IPV and HIV infection among economically disadvantaged urban women. A small randomized control trial will be conducted to provide an initial estimate of the model’s efficacy with this population. The proposed research will set the stage for a large-scale randomized clinical trial in the US.

Mittal has published numerous journal articles on contemporary issues in marriage, family and relationships in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy and Contemporary Family Therapy. Mittal was a project team member on a grant funded by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF) through its Healthy Marriage Initiative, entitled, “Promoting Child Welfare: Training Professionals to Support Healthy Marriages, Relationships and Families.”  In addition to courses taught in family systems, child development and family therapy, cultural diversity and qualitative research, Mittal is in clinical practice.