1  | INTRODUCTION
In the United States (US), nearly 1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men have
experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) at some point in their
life, and about 70% experience their first victimization before the
age of 25 making IPV a significant threat to the health of youth
(Breiding et al., 2014; Crooks et al., 2019). According to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2015), ‘the term “intimate partner violence” describes physical violence, sexual violence,
stalking, or psychological harm by a current or former partner’.
IPV is conceptualized as a produk of multiple, interacting factors
at the individual, interpersonal and societal levels (Montesanti &
Thurston, 2015), and is associated with adverse physical, mental and
sexual and reproductive health outcomes (Stockman et al., 2015).
1.1  |  Background
In some immigrant communities in the US, IPV rates are higher
than the general population ranging between 45% and 80%
(Barkho et al., 2011; Cavanaugh et al., 2014; Kulwicki et al., 2015).
Immigrant communities in the US benefit less from the universal
violence prevention programmes implemented in schools than
non-immigrant groups (Gavine et al., 2016; Hahn et al., 2007).
In part, this is due to contextual and immigration-related factors
such as acculturative stress, language barriers, discrimination, limited information of legal protections and services, social isolation
and socio-economic inequalities (Sabri et al., 2018) that interact to
amplify vulnerability to IPV.
In the US, there is scarcity of research conducted on IPV
amongst Arab American immigrants which could be attributed, in
part, to researchers’ and community members’ reluctance to investigate stigmatized topics such as IPV, for fear of perpetuating stereotypes. These concerns are valid considering the social and political
environment that promotes xenophobia and represents Arab immigrants as violent and a potential threat to the national security of the
US. Arabs have been framed in US politics and tempat as backward,
violent and dangerous (Awad et al., 2019; Awad & Amayreh, 2016).
These stereotypes promote discrimination and violence by systematically influencing societal-level perceptions and behaviours
(Dovidio, 2010). Since 9/11 and with recent political events, discrimination against Arabs has increased (Awad & Amayreh, 2016; Berry
& Wiggins, 2018). Previous research shows that discrimination exacerbates health disparities and worsens vulnerability to violence