Women’s Economic Abuse Experiences: Results from the UN Multi-Country Study on Men and Violence in Asia and the Pacific

Abstract

Economic abuse is a poorly understood form of intimate partner violence but may have far-reaching implications for the financial health of the survivor. Additionally, very little is known about whether depressive symptoms, education, employment, or attitudes about relations between men and women mediate or moderate the relationship between economic abuse and their financial circumstances. The purpose of this study was to answer these two research questions: (a) Is there a relationship between the experience of economic abuse and food insecurity (as a measure of poverty)? (b) Is the relationship between economic abuse and food insecurity impacted by women’s education, women’s and men’s employment, women’s attitudes towards gender relations, or women’s depressive symptoms? We used quantitative data from the “UN Multi-Country Study on Men and Violence,” analyzing data on 3,105 women aged 18–49 years who were interviewed. Initial logistic regressions were conducted followed by introducing moderators and mediators to the model using path analyses to test the relationship between economic abuse and food insecurity in the household. Significant predictors of food insecurity included several types of abuse and partners’ employment, women’s own employment, and education. The only type of IPV not associated with food insecurity was physical abuse. Experiences of economic abuse were associated with a 1.69 times greater likelihood of reporting food insecurity which was higher than experiences of psychological or sexual abuse. Additionally, women’s experiences of economic abuse over their lifetime were significantly associated with an increase in depressive symptoms which in turn was associated with greater likelihood of experiencing food insecurity. Such relationships warrant attention to economic abuse and depressive symptoms as part of the interventions used when working with survivors. Additional research could also help further our understanding of how these variables interact together and how best to address its impact on survivors.

Examining the impact of economic abuse on survivors of intimate partner violence: A scoping review

“…Three articles came from Turkey [32][33][34], two came from South Africa [35,36] and one article came from Germany [37], Ghana [38], Hong Kong [39], India [40], Malaysia [41], and Palestine [42]. A single article used data collected as part of a multi-country study of China, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka [43].…”

“…All but two studies [39,41] had entirely female samples. The race/ethnicity of the sample was not documented in 12 studies [30,[32][33][34][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. Six of the studies reported having a sample in which 50% or more identi ed as white [3,4,18,28,29,31].…”

“…Studies described economic abuse as a mechanism of coercive control [2, 3, 18-20, 22, 28, 40], an attitude or behavior [38], or an abusive behavior [30]. These strategies hinder a woman's ability to acquire, use, and maintain economic resources [2-4, 18-20, 44], threatening her economic security [2, 3, 18-20, 38, 40, 43, 44], economic self-su ciency [2,3,18,19,26,29,31,38,40,44], and increasing nancial dependence on their abusive partner [4,22,26,40,43]. Some studies described economic abuse in terms of the three constructs identi ed in theoretical and measurement literature [16]: economic control (n = 10), employment sabotage (n = 7), and economic exploitation (n = 4).…”

“…The studies that analyzed the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study data measured economic abuse using two items: "He tried to prevent you from going to work and/or school" and "He withheld money, made you ask for money, or took your money" [24][25][26][27]30]. Two studies used measures from the United Nations Multi-Country Study, which included four economic abuse tactics: preventing women from earning money, taking her money, throwing her out of the home, or spending money on alcohol, tobacco, or himself when it was needed for the household [36,43].…”

Cognitive testing of a survey instrument to assess sexual practices, behaviours, and health outcomes: a multi-country study protocol

“…Additional surveys have asked about sexual practices and behaviours across multiple countries. However, these range in quality (for example in terms of their representativeness [ 6 ]), the detail that they capture on sexual practices and behaviours, and the demographics of their target population [ 7 , 8 ]. Together, these data provide a patchy, but important base understanding of some sexual practices and behaviours for some populations at specific stages across the life course.…”