Mothers' Experience of Intimate Partner Violence and Material Hardship

Background/Purpose:

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is associated with a number of negative economic outcomes including loss of employment, decreased economic well-being, and increased material hardship. However, many studies examining the relationship between IPV and economic indicators have been limited by their reliance on samples of welfare recipients or IPV survivors, and by the use of cross-sectional data. We contribute to this gap in knowledge by examining the association of IPV and material hardship using longitudinal data on a population-based national sample of women in urban areas in the US.

 

Methods:

We use the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a national panel study of approximately 5,000 children born in 20 large U.S. cities between 1998 and 2000. Parents were interviewed at baseline (at child’s birth) and were followed up when children were 1, 3, 5, and 9 years old.  Analyses make use of all four follow-up waves and are based on a sample of 8,887 repeated observations on 3,444 unique mothers who were interviewed at each wave and had no missing data on the variables of interest. We measured IPV at each wave based on women’s reports of experiencing physical, emotional, and controlling IPV, as well as a combination of these, from the biological father of the focal child. Material hardship is based on a series of questions asked of mothers at each wave about their inability to make ends meet in a number of domains (e.g. food, utilities, and housing) in the past year. We created a binary variable for any material hardship experienced at each wave.

We first estimate the effect of IPV on material hardship using linear probability models based on pooled cross-sectional data, controlling for a rich set of baseline and time-varying controls. Next, we incorporate individual fixed effects models, which only analyze differences within individuals allowing us to control for all unmeasured static characteristics that may vary between women who experience and do not experience IPV.

Results:

In this sample of urban mothers, over 1/3 report IPV and over 40% report at least one material hardship in the past year. The results indicate that women who experienced IPV are more likely to experience material hardship. While all types of IPV were significantly (p<.01) associated with higher probability of experiencing hardship, the strongest effects were observed for physical violence. In our fully controlled models, mothers who experienced physical violence were 13 percentage points more likely to report material hardship in the past year (p<.001). These results, while attenuated, were robust to inclusion of individual fixed effects. 

Conclusions and Implications:

The results of this study indicate that IPV, particularly physical IPV, increases women’s likelihood of experiencing material hardship and thus decreases their ability to achieve economic opportunity and stability for themselves and their children. Experiences of IPV have not only lasting damage for women’s psychosocial well-being, but also for their financial and economic well-being over the life course. Policy makers and social workers should address IPV rates and account for IPV when addressing issues of economic hardship.