(Withdrawn) The Effects of Workplace Support on Workplace Disruptions: Differences between White and Black Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence

Background and Purpose: Women in violent relationships often also experience workplace disruptions by their abusive partner. Examples include stalking at the workplace, badgering via phone or social media during work time, or starting fights while survivors were required to work. Research has shown that workplace supports can alleviate these detrimental effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) on the workplace and can aid survivors with keeping their job. Yet, female survivors of IPV are likely to experience discrimination and bigotry by supervisors or colleagues with Black survivors presumably likely to encounter discrimination regarding receiving workplace supports. Drawing from social support theory, the purpose of this study is to explore the effect on workplace supports on survivors’ workplace disruptions and to understand how Black women survivors are receiving supports as compared to White survivors.

Methods: A total of 41 Participants for this cross-sectional study were recruited through an IPV advocacy and service agency. All of them were employed sometime during their experience of IPV and answered a survey with questions about IPV, workplace disruptions, supports, mental health problems, demographics, and employment. For the current analysis participants who identified as White (N=19) or Black (N=20) were included. All workplace disruption variables were dichotomized representing the experience of a disruption or the absence of such. Workplace support variables also included two levels (i.e., having or not having received support). Crosstabs and Fisher’s Exact Tests were performed to examine relationships between workplace disruptions and supports stratifying for Black and White survivors.

Results: Bivariate results indicate several significant associations between workplace disruption variables with support variables. For White participants, workplace disruptions such as unwanted messages on social media or sabotaging education/professional relationships were associated with the coworker/supervisor asking if the participant is ok or showing concern. For Black participants, workplace disruptions making the participant take frequent breaks during work was related to the supervisor/coworker treating the participant as if nothing were wrong or showing concern. Crosstabulations show that for almost all disruptions, Black participants had a frequency of 20% or lower regarding being asked if they are ok and showing concern as compared to White participants. On the other hand, Black participants had a 20% higher frequency regarding having their workload lightened but keeping the hours the same for most disruptions.

Conclusions and Implications: The results indicate that White participants were offered more support that was significantly related to disruptions as compared to Black participants. This may be because White survivors received a higher frequency of supports which may have therefore had a greater impact. Implications include raising awareness for IPV survivors in the workplace and to inform employers about the protective effect of basic support systems (i.e., asking if s.o. is ok or showing concern). It is important that those supports are offered to both, Black and White survivors alike. Future research should include larger samples in order to identify the directionality of observed