Increasing Financial Empowerment among Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence: A Growth Curve Analysis

Financial empowerment interventions are often used with survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) to improve their financial well-being. However, few evaluations actually measure financial empowerment as an outcome. Thus, the purpose of this study was to develop and test a conceptual model for financial empowerment and then use the model to evaluate the effectiveness of a financial literacy intervention at increasing financial empowerment for survivors. The conceptual model was guided by Christens' nomological network for psychological empowerment and included four components: emotional, cognitive, relational, and behavioral. The analyses used data from a randomized controlled trial evaluating Moving Ahead, a financial literacy program developed for IPV survivors (n = 449). To determine whether this intervention was effective at increasing financial empowerment for survivors over time, confirmatory factor analyses were run to test for longitudinal measurement invariance, followed by a curve-of-factors growth model (CFM) with assignment as a time-invariant predictor of change. Strict partial longitudinal measurement invariance was achieved and CFM results found assignment to be significantly associated with both initial status (.054, p = .042) and change over time (.114, p = .000). Results suggest that this conceptual model for financial empowerment fit the data well and the intervention was effective.