Intimate partner violence and unemployment among California women

Background: Women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) often face major barriers to employment, such as mental and physical health problems. Although IPV includes both physical/sexual and psychological violence, previous research has generally overlooked the association between psychological IPV, including threats and stalking, and unemployment, and has been limited to community/convenience samples.

Objective: To investigate the relationship of both physical/sexual IPV and psychological IPV and employment status among a representative sample of California women. It is expected that women who have experienced physical/sexual IPV and/or psychological IPV will be at increased risk for unemployment.

Methods: Data are from the 2001, 2003, and 2004 California Women's Health Survey, a population-based, random-digit-dial, annual probability survey of adult California women (N=6,633). Logistic regressions were used to predict current employment status, adjusting for the following covariates: age, race/ethnicity, education, nativity, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Results: Over 11% of women in California reported experiencing some form of IPV in the past year. Both psychological IPV and physical/sexual IPV were associated with unemployment (OR=2.15, 95%CI:1.76-2.61; OR=1.83, 95%CI:1.42-2.38). However, after controlling for covariates, only the relationship between psychological IPV and unemployment remained significant (AOR=1.78, 95%CI:1.36-2.32).

Conclusion: Psychological IPV and physical IPV are both important barriers to employment. Given that both types of IPV are overrepresented among women on welfare, public assistance programs that aim to move women from welfare to work should develop policies to detect and address physical and psychological violence and the mental health sequelae of IPV.