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Field
Primary Outcomes (Explanation)
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Before
The primary outcome variable will consist of self-reported victimisation (IPV) (for women) or perpetration (for men) of economic IPV. Here, we will use a culturally adapted and extended version of the Scale of Economic Abuse. The item battery will capture four key dimensions of economic IPV, namely (i) economic control (6 items), (ii) economic exploitation (10 items), (iii) employment sabotage (5 items), and (iv) refusal to contribute economically (2 items). The reference period for the measures will be the past six months to align the measure with the time to follow-up from the intervention’s implementation.
Further, to mitigate the risk of non-disclosure due to perceived stigmatisation and social desirability, economic IPV will be elicited using a list experiment designed to increase anonymity and disclosure. Here, respondents will be randomly assigned to one of two lists of statements. One list will consist of four innocuous statements (reference group) and the other list will include these same four statements and an additional sensitive item on economic IPV, namely “I am not allowed to decide how money is spent in our home.”/”My wife is not allowed to decide how money is spent in our home” (experimental group). Respondents will then specify how many of the presented statements apply to them (e.g., “3 out of 5”) without having to indicate which statements they are referring to. The prevalence of economic IPV will then be determined by subtracting the average number documented in the experimental group from the average number in the reference group.
In addition, we will make use of the implicit association test (IAT) technique to measure potential subconscious attitudes towards economic IPV, using an adapted version of the Gender Violence IAT. Following previous research, the IAT will consist of a series of stimuli in the form of words, which respondents are asked to sort into two categories by touching a left or right button on the mobile tablet. Specifically, the IAT will be composed of different blocks in which respondents need to sort male and female names into the categories (a) woman and (b) man (target concept) and words such as “employment”, “career”, “care”, “cleaning” into the categories (c) work and (d) home (attribute concept). In a subsequent block, words corresponding to our attribute concept (work vs. home) will be sorted to the target concept “women” vs. “man” in a stereotypical manner, i.e. words belonging to the attribute work will be assigned to “man” and words belonging to the attribute home will be assigned to “woman”. In a last block, words corresponding to the attribute concept will be placed into the categories that are not stereotypically associated (i.e., “career” – “women”). The key assumption of the IAT approach is thereby that respondents’ reaction time is faster if a perceived association between concepts is stronger. The final IAT score will be defined as the difference between the mean response times for incongruent category pairs (e.g., women and work) and congruent category pairs (e.g., women and home).
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After
The primary outcome variable will consist of self-reported victimisation (IPV) (for women) or perpetration (for men) of economic IPV. Here, we will use a culturally adapted and extended version of the Scale of Economic Abuse. The item battery will capture four key dimensions of economic IPV, namely (i) economic control (6 items), (ii) economic exploitation (10 items), (iii) employment sabotage (5 items), and (iv) refusal to contribute economically (2 items). The reference period for the measures will be the past six months to align the measure with the time to follow-up from the intervention’s implementation.
Further, to mitigate the risk of non-disclosure due to perceived stigmatisation and social desirability, economic IPV will be elicited using a list experiment designed to increase anonymity and disclosure. Here, respondents will be randomly assigned to one of two lists of statements. One list will consist of four innocuous statements (reference group) and the other list will include these same four statements and an additional sensitive item on economic IPV, namely “I am not allowed to decide how money is spent in our home.”/”My wife is not allowed to decide how money is spent in our home” (experimental group). Respondents will then specify how many of the presented statements apply to them (e.g., “3 out of 5”) without having to indicate which statements they are referring to. The prevalence of economic IPV will then be determined by subtracting the average number documented in the experimental group from the average number in the reference group.
In addition, we will make use of the implicit association test (IAT) technique to measure potential subconscious attitudes towards economic IPV, using an adapted version of the Gender Violence IAT. Following previous research, the IAT will consist of a series of stimuli in the form of words, which respondents are asked to sort into two categories by touching a left or right button on the mobile tablet. Specifically, the IAT will be composed of different blocks in which respondents need to sort male and female names into the categories (a) woman and (b) man (target concept) and words such as “employment”, “career”, “care”, “cleaning” into the categories (c) work and (d) home (attribute concept). In a subsequent block, words corresponding to our attribute concept (work vs. home) will be sorted to the target concept “women” vs. “man” in a stereotypical manner, i.e. words belonging to the attribute work will be assigned to “man” and words belonging to the attribute home will be assigned to “woman”. In a last block, words corresponding to the attribute concept will be placed into the categories that are not stereotypically associated (i.e., “career” – “women”). The key assumption of the IAT approach is thereby that respondents’ reaction time is faster if a perceived association between concepts is stronger. The final IAT score will be defined as the difference between the mean response times for incongruent category pairs (e.g., women and work) and congruent category pairs (e.g., women and home). Considering that the IAT takes approximately 15-20 minutes to complete, we will only include the IAT at endline.
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Field
Secondary Outcomes (Explanation)
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Before
A first group of secondary outcomes will seek to capture the possible impacts of the intervention on aspects of spouses’ economic wellbeing. Specifically, we will include:
(i) Financial literacy and knowledge. We will measure financial literacy and knowledge based on a five-item scale in which participants rate their financial knowledge and competencies on a 5-point Likert scale (e.g. “I know how I can deposit and withdraw cash from a bank account”), and two additional factual questions drawn from a previous study conducted in India to assess respondents’ financial literacy.
(ii) Household savings balance. We will capture participants’ self-reported savings based on a survey module used in a previous RCT in Pune, Maharashtra, which will capture the total amount of savings kept at home, in a bank, post office, national savings centre or mobile phone account, in a savings group, money kept with relatives or friends, and the estimated amount of in-kind savings in jewellery/gold/silver.
(iii) Past-month income. We will capture participants’ self-reported earnings in the past month, including payments made in-kind to account for sectors in which wages are more typically paid in-kind.
(iv) Financial distress. We will measure participants’ self-reported financial distress based on an 8-item scale adapted from a previous RCT in Tanzania, where participants indicate how often in the past six months they, for example, “had trouble buying food or other necessities for their family” or were “very worried/stressed about their general financial situation”.
Second, we will assess women’s employment status (including formal and informal work) and female empowerment and agency based solely on wives’ reports. The former measure will be a binary indicator, coded as 1 if the woman reports engaging in income generating activities, including formal and informal work. The latter measure will capture multiple dimensions of women’s empowerment, including: (i) freedom of movement, evaluated using a six-item scale developed by Richardson et al. (2019) to assess women’s agency in India (e.g., the ability to visit the market or one’s natal family unaccompanied), (ii) self-efficacy, measured using a four-item adaptation of Rotter’s locus of control scale, (iii) community participation, assessed through items from the Indian Human Development Survey, which capture women’s membership in various groups (e.g., self-help groups, savings groups) and their attendance at village panchayat committee meetings, and (iv) self-rated empowerment, measured using a 10-step ladder scale previously employed with rural women in Nepal, where respondents position themselves relative to the perceived status of women in their community.
Third, we will evaluate treatment effects on other forms of IPV based solely on wives’ reports by combining items from the World Health Organisation’s multi-country study on domestic violence against women and the Indian Family Violence and Control Scale. The measure will capture four sub-forms of IPV, namely (i) physical IPV (4 items), (ii) sexual IPV (2 items), (iii) emotional IPV (3 items), and (iv) coercive behaviours (3 items). Like economic IPV, the reference period for the measures will be the past six months.
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After
A first group of secondary outcomes will seek to capture the possible impacts of the intervention on aspects of spouses’ economic wellbeing. Specifically, we will include:
(i) Financial literacy and knowledge. We will measure financial literacy and knowledge based on a five-item scale in which participants rate their financial knowledge and competencies on a 5-point Likert scale (e.g. “I know how I can deposit and withdraw cash from a bank account”), and two additional factual questions drawn from a previous study conducted in India to assess respondents’ financial literacy.
(ii) Household savings balance. We will capture participants’ self-reported savings based on a survey module used in a previous RCT in Pune, Maharashtra, which will capture the total amount of savings kept at home, in a bank, post office, national savings centre or mobile phone account, in a savings group, money kept with relatives or friends, and the estimated amount of in-kind savings in jewellery/gold/silver.
(iii) Past-month income. We will capture participants’ self-reported earnings in the past month, including payments made in-kind to account for sectors in which wages are more typically paid in-kind.
(iv) Financial distress. We will measure participants’ self-reported financial distress based on an 8-item scale adapted from a previous RCT in Tanzania, where participants indicate how often in the past six months they, for example, “had trouble buying food or other necessities for their family” or were “very worried/stressed about their general financial situation”.
Second, we will assess women’s employment status (including formal and informal work) and female empowerment and agency based solely on wives’ reports. The former measure will be a binary indicator, coded as 1 if the woman reports engaging in income generating activities, including formal and informal work. The latter measure will capture multiple dimensions of women’s empowerment, including: (i) freedom of movement, evaluated using a five-item scale developed by Richardson et al. (2019) to assess women’s agency in India (e.g., the ability to visit the market or one’s natal family unaccompanied), (ii) self-efficacy, measured using a four-item adaptation of Rotter’s locus of control scale, (iii) community participation, assessed through items from the Indian Human Development Survey, which capture women’s membership in various groups (e.g., self-help groups, savings groups) and their attendance at village panchayat committee meetings, and (iv) self-rated empowerment, measured using a 10-step ladder scale previously employed with rural women in Nepal, where respondents position themselves relative to the perceived status of women in their community.
Third, we will evaluate treatment effects on other forms of IPV based solely on wives’ reports by combining items from the World Health Organisation’s multi-country study on domestic violence against women and the Indian Family Violence and Control Scale. The measure will capture four sub-forms of IPV, namely (i) physical IPV (4 items), (ii) sexual IPV (2 items), (iii) emotional IPV (3 items), and (iv) coercive behaviours (3 items). Like economic IPV, the reference period for the measures will be the past six months.
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