Testing and Validating Financial Measures with Intimate Partner Violence Survivors, New Jersey, New York, and Puerto Rico, 2018-2020
Description
Economic empowerment is a promising intervention to address intimate partner violence (IPV). Recently, financial education programs have been developed and tested with survivors of IPV. However, only a few rigorous evaluations of economic empowerment interventions exist with survivors of IPV in the U.S., and none assess the language and cultural differences among Spanish-speaking survivors.
This study tested and validated measures related to financial empowerment and partner violence with English and Spanish-speaking IPV survivors to address this gap. The specific objectives of the project were to: (1) Test and revise financial and abuse scales which were pre-existing or adapted from scales used in the general population for use with IPV survivors in both English and Spanish utilizing a secondary dataset, and (2) Further test and validate measures analyzed as part of Objective One with a similar sample of IPV survivors in both English and Spanish to determine if these scales are appropriate for use with IPV populations.
This study was conducted in two phases to address each of its objectives. The first objective was completed during Phase I, and the second objective during Phase II. Data for Phase II was gathered through individual interviews, either face-to-face or over the phone. Interviewers used a structured questionnaire, with the nine financial and abuse scales, in the participant's preferred language, English or Spanish. These nine scales were:
Financial Knowledge Scale - to determine survivors' knowledge about financial management.
Financial Management Attitudes Scale - to determine survivors' attitudes about financial management.
Scale of Economic Self-Efficacy - to determine survivors' confidence in their financial management abilities.
Scale of Financial Behaviors - to determine survivors' actual financial management behaviors.
Scale of Financial Intentions - to determine survivors' intentions to perform particular financial behaviors.
Scale of Economic Self-Sufficiency - to determine survivors' abilities to accomplish financial tasks.
Financial Strain Survey - to determine survivors' strain in managing their financial health.
Abusive Behavior Inventory - to determine survivors' experiences with physical, emotional, and sexual violence.
Scale of Economic Abuse-12 - to determine survivors' experiences with economic abuse.
In addition, the questionnaire gathered demographic information including: age, ethnicity, employment status, education level, marital status, and annual income.