Intimate partner violence: understanding employment stability through latent class analysis

Women’s experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) adversely impact their careers. This study determines how employment factors (e.g. hours, scheduling, and support levels) differ in a sample of mothers and how those differences influence abuse. This cross-sectional study uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCW). We chose the fourth wave because the data enables an understanding of the employment conditions of IPV survivors who are mothers of young children (N = 1,845). Latent class analysis using mixture modeling estimated subtypes of employment stability, and whether IPV predicted employment class membership was completed. Results showed that a three-class solution was the best fit for the data. IPV experiences predicted a higher risk of being in the ‘Full-Time and Unsupported’ over both the ‘Stable and Supported’ (OR = 1.44, 95% CI 1.25-1.65) and the ‘Part-Time’ class (OR = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.05-1.1.65). Results indicate that IPV significantly impacts the employment classes that mothers fall into. This finding builds on previous literature to say that IPV not only predicts working in lower-income positions and having fewer work hours but also having an unsupportive workplace culture.