Parker, Barbara J.
Primary Appointment
Professor, Nursing
Contact Information
Telephone: 924-2744
Email: bjp8c@virginia.edu
Research Interests
Violence against women; women's health; Homicide survivors, methodological and measurement issues
Research Description
Completed Studies: I have been involved in several large multisite studies on violence in pregnancy funded by the Centers for Disease Control, Intentional Injury Division. We have recently completed a clinical trial of a nursing intervention for abused pregnant women. We found that women in the intervention groups reported significantly less violence one year later than women in the comparison group. This intervention is now being incorporated into routine nursing care at the Health Sciences Center. In February 2000 I was the recipient of the Southern Nursing Research Society Distinguished Nurse Research Award. In November 2004 I received an award for Excellence in Nursing Practice from the Nursing Network on Violence Against Women International.
Current Studies: With colleague Dr. Richard Steeves, I am co-investigator of a study with adults who experienced the homicide of one parent by the other when they were children.
Although seemingly rare, the incidence of uxoricide is similar to childhood leukemia. If one assumes that the lives of children of uxoricide are disrupted as much as those with cancer, the extent of the problem is obvious. Yet any comparison of the attention given these two groups of vulnerable children by researchers demonstrates a significant disparity.
We are interviewing adults (over 18), who had this experience as a child to further understand and describe the way these children deal with the experience. Our assumption is that these people are experts on what it is like to deal with and survive this kind of trauma. The study is part of a program of research that will lead to interventions that will help children living with this experience now. The study is funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research of NIH from October 2003 to July, 2006.