The road to unfreedom: Violence and multidimensional poverty among young Australian women

Abstract

This study investigates the cumulative effects of violence experienced across the life course on young Australian women’s risk of multidimensional poverty. Drawing on six waves of data from the 1989–1995 birth cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (N = 11,224), the authors analyse how childhood exposure to violence and later intimate partner violence—including coercive control—shape women’s material, educational, health, employment and social deprivation. Findings reveal that women exposed to violence in childhood are significantly more likely to experience poverty in young adulthood and to be revictimised. The study emphasises coercive control as a key contributor to multidimensional poverty and highlights the intersecting constraints that undermine women’s freedom and wellbeing.