Predictors of Financial Capability Among Female Survivors of Human Trafficking in Ghana, West Africa

Background

The study is based on female survivors of trafficking who received intervention from a residential agency between 2010 and 2015 in Ghana, West Africa. The purpose of this study was, first, to evaluate the factor structure of the Financial Capability (FC) Scale and second, to evaluate the degree to which FC may differ in relation to age, having children, marital status, level of education, time since receiving intervention.  

Methods

With assistance from the agency and the use of cell-phone and other contacts, a list of participants, including their contacts were drawn. A total of n=144 (46%) out of the N=311 participants who received intervention participated in this study. Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) within the structural equation modeling framework was used to assess the factor structures while the MIMIC model (CFA with covariates) was used to assess the strength of the relationship of the covariates and FC. The FC scale has been widely used in many developing countries and has 8 items.

Results

Each of the overall goodness-of-fit indices suggested that the initial CFA model fit the data well, χ² _{(19, n = 144)} = 31.45, p = .04, RMSEA = .067 (90% CI: .017-.108), TLI = 0.923, CFI = 0.948. After pruning predictive effects that were non-significant across all three latent variables, a final MIMIC model fit the data well: χ² _{(44, n = 144)} = 70.65, p = .01, RMSEA = .065 (90% CI: .035-.092), TLI = 0.890, CFI = 0.920. The inclusion of covariate predictive effects did not alter the factor structure or produce salient areas of strain. The MIMIC predictive model indicated that participants that indicated lower education had higher levels of financial risk (standardized β = -.19, p < .05). Conversely, we found a significant effect of education on financial planning. Specifically, those with higher education levels had higher levels of financial planning (standardized β = .29, p < .05) than participants with lower education levels, indicating education significantly predicts financial planning. Finally, results indicate significant effects of age, having children, marital status and time since intervention on financial savings. Specifically, older women reported lower levels of financial savings (standardized β = -.24, p < .05) than younger women. Having children was related to lower levels of financial savings (standardized β = -.22, p < .05). Women that indicated they were married on average reported higher levels of financial savings (standardized β = .18, p < .05) than single women. Finally, time since intervention was related to lower levels of financial savings (standardized β = -.41, p < .001), indicating the highest average level of financial savings at intervention and decreased thereafter.     

Implications

Poverty and lack of economic resources is a risk factor for trafficking in many parts of the world. Social workers working with trafficking survivors should focus on those aspects that can enhance the economic stability of survivors in order to prevent retramautization and retrafficking. Both individual-level as well as societal-level factors should be a focus in providing economic stability to trafficking survivors.