Relative Resources and Intimate Partner Violence Among Married and Cohabiting Couples: Evidence from the Fragile Families Study

• In Event: Gender, Context, and Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

Socioeconomic resources play an important role in intimate partner violence (IPV) against women; women living in poor households face an elevated risk of IPV victimization. Women’s resources relative to male partners also may contribute to IPV. Economic dependence on a male partner is thought to limit women’s bargaining power and makes it difficult to leave an abusive relationship. Yet research on married couples shows that breadwinning may put women at elevated risk of IPV, suggesting that any protective effect of increased earnings may be diminished or reversed in cases where women earn more than their male spouses. Less is known, however, about how these dynamics work in disadvantaged urban households, where overall household resources are lower and couples are more likely to be cohabiting than married. Using data on married and cohabiting opposite-sex couples from the Fragile Families Study, I examine how three types of relative resources - earnings, employment, and educational attainment- are related to subsequent risk of male-to-female IPV. Results indicate that relative earnings and relative education are associated with IPV; however, relative employment does not have a significant association with IPV, after adjusting for covariates. The significance of these findings for research and policy are considered.

Author

• Sara Bastomski, Yale University