Source: University of Auckland
Economic abuse compounds other forms of violence and pushes women into poverty, according to new research.
Economic abuse is common, affecting about 15 percent or one in seven women who have been in a relationship, new University of Auckland research finds.
Further, economic violence compounds the impacts of other forms of intimate partner violence.
Economic abuse is where a partner uses tactics aimed at controlling a women’s financial resources, including restricting access to finances, controlling women’s money and sabotaging their ability to earn an income.
The most prevalent act was a refusal to provide money for household expenses, reported by 8.8 percent of women. See Journal of Interpersonal Violence.
The study, led by researchers at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, used data from the NZ Family Violence Study, including 1464 women who had been in a relationship.
The study, as a whole, measured women’s experience of physical violence, sexual violence, psychological abuse and controlling behaviour, as well as economic abuse.
Women who had experienced economic abuse on top of other forms of abuse were almost five times more likely to have experienced food insecurity compared with women who were not abused.
Women who reported economic abuse were also almost three times more likely to be receiving a benefit.
“This study is telling us is that, when economic abuse is added into the picture, it really increases the devastating consequences for women.”
Women who had experienced any form of intimate partner violence were twice as likely than other women to have a diagnosed mental health condition, such as depression or anxiety.
However, women who experienced economic abuse as well as other forms of physical, sexual or psychological violence by a partner were almost five times more likely to have a diagnosed mental health condition compared with women who were not abused.
“In a country where we have a mental health crisis, part of addressing it involves asking, ‘What are we looking at?’, ‘What are some of the underlying causal factors that might be underpinning this crisis? It may be experience of violence,” says lead author Professor Janet Fanslow of the University’s School of Population Health.
“Abuse causes a whole cavalcade of problems, but if we only think about it as a single act, like being hit or punched or having your arm broken, we miss the broader mental health and economic consequences it creates. This stops us from being able to offer people the help they need,” says Fanslow.
“Intimate partner violence t
