Cultural Adaptation of a Web-Based App (myPlan Thailand) to Empower and Support Friends and Family of Intimate Partner Violence Survivors - This K43 project will culturally and linguistically adapt and preliminarily test myPlan, a secure U.S.-developed web-based/mobile safety intervention, for friends and family (F/F) of intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors in Thailand. IPV is a critical public health issue in Thailand and the United States, with serious consequences including depression, suicidality, injury, and safety threats. In Thailand, as in many settings, survivors often seek help first from informal support networks rather than formal services; therefore, F/F responses can directly influence survivor safety and well-being, yet F/F members may lack IPV knowledge, feel uncertainty or distress about how to help, or respond in ways shaped by social norms and cultural beliefs that unintentionally increase risk. The Thai performance site is scientifically necessary and provides a special scientific opportunity because the central research questions - how Thai language, social norms, cultural beliefs, family/community obligations, and informal help-seeking patterns shape F/F responses to IPV - can only be studied authentically among Thai survivors and their support networks in a setting with high smartphone and internet use, strong reliance on informal networks, and underuse of formal IPV services. By extending, rather than duplicating, the U.S.-developed myPlan platform into a network-oriented mHealth model, the project will complete two phases and three aims: (1) tailor the myPlan app content for concerned F/F members of Thai IPV survivors; (2) integrate and refine the adapted content through cognitive and theater testing; and (3) test the feasibility and acceptability of the adapted app with concerned F/F members. Phase 1 adapts and pilot-tests content with Thai survivors and F/F members through interviews, advisory board input, cognitive testing, and theater testing. Phase 2 uses a two-group randomized design to compare the adapted myPlan app for F/F members with usual-care safety planning information and to collect feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcome data to inform a future R01 application. Findings will strengthen a U.S.-developed digital safety platform and generate transferable knowledge to inform future myPlan adaptations for American survivors who rely on friends and family for support, including Thai-American, Asian-American, immigrant, and other underserved communities. This work advances NIH's mission by producing evidence to improve, understand, and protect the health and safety of Americans affected by IPV while supporting the candidate's development as an independent global mental health and IPV intervention researcher.
