Table 4.

Overarching Theme 3, Subthemes, and Exemplar Quotes

Theme 3: Differential IPV experiences by marital status
Arab American IPV survivors who are unmarried can be blackmailed into accepting IPV if an abusive partner threatens to ruin a survivor’s reputation by exposing the relationship to family or in the community.	“Because I was involved in a domestic [violence] situation when I was younger, and the reason it was heightened was because it was a quiet relationship, no one could know about it.” (Stakeholder)
	“Sometimes the boyfriends can, will take advantage of you know, someone trying to um, protect their reputation, ‘if you tell anybody then I’ll post pictures of you on the internet, I’ll tell everyone about our relationship’, and they have that, uh, power over the young women, because reputation is very important.” (Stakeholder)
Arab American IPV survivors who are married struggle to obtain a divorce or feel obligated to stay with an abusive partner due to children.	“…Religiously speaking, when you get married it’s a lot harder to get a divorce, religiously versus, you know, just the American court system…Instead of just being about the abuse or trying to get out as quickly as possible it becomes this…prolonged situation where you’re trying to get out, but he wants to make it as difficult as possible because he doesn’t want that reputation or shame or having his name being kind of tarnished or wronged…so I feel like it becomes a lot harder if you’re married.” (Stakeholder)
	“And in the end, she’s scared about the future of her daughter, that they will tell her about what happened, that ‘your mother did this and that to your father’. And this is the hardest thing for the mom. In the end, it’s about what’s best for the children.” (Client)