| Description |
This dissertation explores the long-run economic consequences of intimate partner violence (IPV) over the life cycle, using a capabilities approach framework and taking a gender-aware perspective. First, the capabilities approach is adapted to provide a framework for conceptualizing the full extent of the economic consequences of adolescent and young adult experiences with IPV. Subsequent chapters analyze the associations between these early experiences with IPV and future educational and economic outcomes empirically, using nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. The first of the two empirical chapters looks at educational attainment by victim sex and by type of violence. Additionally, it analyzes specific channels through which violence may affect education, namely mental and physical health and school absences. Results indicate that female victims of all forms of dating violence (DV) are less likely to graduate from high school and have lower cumulative high school grade point averages (GPAs). Additionally, almost a quarter of the estimated relationship between DV and high school graduation is explained through school absences. For males, only psychological DV is shown to be significantly associated with adverse educational performance. The next chapter explores the association between IPV during young adulthood and future economic security separately by victim sex. It uses regression analysis and propensity score matching to look at the effects of any violence as well as intensity of violence. Results indicate significant associations between IPV and the likelihood of reporting economic hardship or receipt of public assistance in later life for both male and female victims as well as decreased likelihood of college graduation. These results are robust to both estimation strategies. Increasing IPV intensity is also shown to be associated with increasingly deleterious effects on economic well-being. This research emphasizes that the costs of IPV last long beyond the period of victimization and that IPV experienced during particularly crucial periods in the life cycle, including adolescence and young adulthood, can have significant ramifications on future capabilities and functionings. |
