Examining the Factor Structure of the Domestic Violence Related Financial Issues Scale (DV-FI) with a Community Sample

Background and Purpose: Economic abuse is a distinct form of intimate partner violence (IPV) yet few measures of economic or financial factors exist. Weaver et al.’s (2009) Domestic Violence-Related Financial Issues Scale (DV-FI) assesses the role of financial-related issues in one’s experiences of IPV as well as perceptions of financial self-efficacy and the future role that financial issues will play in one’s sense of financial security. The original exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the DV-FI identified five subscales within a shelter-based sample of women: Financial Self-Efficacy, Financial Security and Future Safety, Perceived Financial Role in Partner Abuse, Economic Abuse, and Financial Distress and Relationship Decisions. The DV-FI demonstrated good psychometric properties at the time of development; yet, the factor structure has not been evaluated with another sample. In this article, we describe the results of a confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis of the DV-FI using a community sample.

Methods: Data came from baseline interviews with 150 women in a two-year panel study who had experienced IPV and were receiving civil legal services. The women completed the 20-item DV-FI and several measures of IPV (Index of Spouse Abuse, Women’s Experience with Battering Scale Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory, Physical Assault subscale of the Revised Conflict Tactic Scale, a measure of non-violent coercive control) and the adequacy of their family resources (Family Resource Scale), which were used to assess the construct validity.

Results: We conducted a confirmatory factor analysis with the lavaan package in R using Weaver et al.’s postulated model. Tests of the original model fit (chi-square test = 361.644, p <.001; RMSEA =0.094, and CFI = 0.827) indicate this model does not fit the data. Thus, an EFA was performed to identify a better fitting model. Results found four factors, rather than five, accounting for 52% of the variance. Two factors correspond exactly with the Weaver et al. model, Financial Self-Efficacy (α = .78) and Financial Security and Future Safety (α = .88). The third factor combined Economic Abuse and Perceived Financial Role in Partner Abuse (α = .77), without the items on credit ratings and credit card debt. The final factor loaded on questions about Credit Ratings and Credit Card Debt (α = .79). Construct validity was established by comparing the four factors with measures of women’s prior history of IPV and current adequacy of family resources. Small to moderate significant correlations in the expected directions were found.  

Conclusions and Implications: Given the importance of identifying economic abuse and financial self-efficacy among women who experience IPV, it is essential to have a reliable and valid measure of these constructs. The DV-FI is the only scale that provides a measure of domain-specific economic self-efficacy in addition to women’s reports of past economic abuse and the role of financial issues in their perceptions of future safety and security.  The results obtained indicated good internal consistency and construct validity of a four-factor structure.