Savings for Survivors: An Individual Development Account Program for Survivors of Intimate-Partner Violence

Abstract

Survivors of domestic violence often remain in abusive relationships due to limited economic resources, economic dependence on an abusive partner, and economic abuse. Viewing women who have experienced domestic violence as \u22survivors\u22 suggests that when provided access to appropriate resources, they will seek help and utilize such resources allowing them to increase their stability and potentially escape an abusive partner. Assets have been shown to have a variety of positive associations with a wide range of economic, social, and psychological outcomes. Economic initiatives, such as financial education and individual development accounts (IDAs), aimed toward survivors of domestic violence are on the rise. However, to date, there are few studies. Data on IDA activity, including savings rates, withdrawals, and asset purchases, for 125 women who participated in an IDA matched-savings program for survivors of intimate-partner violence were examined. Approximately 2/3 of women reached their savings goal and 76% made at least 1 matched-savings withdrawal and asset purchase. Results suggest survivors can be successful savers and purchase assets that may contribute to their economic stability. Implications are discussed, including the need for long-term studies to examine how participation in a matched-savings program affects women\u27s well-being, safety, and future experiences of intimate-partner violence

Longitudinal effects of poverty on men’s perpetration of partner violence in South Africa

“…Increasing a family's assets (through savings or individual development accounts, for example) seems to have a marked decrease in family stress [56]. While savings approaches have begun to be tested among female survivors [57,58], our results suggest that they may be valuable for men. If coupled with gender transformative training, such savings and asset building programming could have health outcomes related to IPV perpetration.…”

Obesity, pelvic inflammatory disease, falls prevention, and domestic violence

“…In the Journal of Social Service Research, financial data were analysed from 125 women on such programmes. 5 The results suggest promising savings and asset purchases can be achieved through these means. Although encouraging, it remains to be seen whether this economic stability leads to reductions in future experiences of domestic abuse.…”

The Forgotten Survivor: The Articulated Needs of Survivors of Psychological and Economic Abuse Who Stay

“…Furthermore, research demonstrates that victims of abuse have various reasons for deciding to stay in or return to abusive relationships, including practical and cultural issues (Bell and Naugle 2005;Brabeck and Guzman 2009;Christman 2009;Payne and Triplett 2009;Saunders 2008). Although a lacuna remains in terms of research on strategies and interventions for individuals who choose to stay in rather than leave an abusive relationship, recent research has begun to address gaps in current intervention practices, shift focus toward nonphysical forms of abuse, and address leave-stay behaviors from a novel perspective including developing information and screening processes (MacMillan et al 2009), enhancing survivor financial literacy (Postmus et al 2012(Postmus et al , 2020Sanders et al 2007), initiatives such as Individual Development Accounts (Sanders 2014;Sanders and Schnabel 2006) and Moving Ahead Through Financial Management (Postmus et al 2015), asset and capability development (Sanders 2013), using technology to address abuse (Glass et al 2015), and creating effective individualized advocacy programs (VonDeLinde 2016).…”