The impact of domestic violence on the employment, educational, and mental health outcomes of the Swiftie generation

Drawing on a nationally representative, longitudinal survey on women’s health, this paper evaluates the impact of the first time women experience domestic violence as an adult, on their labour market, educational, and mental health outcomes. Using a staggered difference-in-difference approach, the results suggest that while employment rates remain unaffected, paid hours worked decline and difficulties managing on income increase. The share of women precluded from attaining a university degree is also substantial: nearly 10 percent fewer women attain a university degree three years following the first reported instance of abuse. The share of women with suicidal thoughts or who engage in self harm also spikes when violence is first reported (7.4 and 5.6 percent, respectively). Since the data permit differentiation by type of abuse (physical, sexual, harassment or emotional) the results reveal heterogenous seffects on women’s outcomes by type of abuse and the frequency of abuse. While women’s university attainment is negatively impacted by all forms of abuse, irrespective of abuse persistence, the labour market impacts, relationship dissolution, suicidal ideation and self-harm are impacted differently, depending on the persistence and type of abuse experienced.