Dr. Adrienne Adams is a Professor of Psychology and the Director of the Program Evaluation M.A. & Certificate Programs. She holds a Ph.D. in community psychology. Her research focuses on economic abuse and the economic effects of intimate partner abuse for survivors. Dr. Adams developed and validated the first measure of economic abuse, the Scale of Economic Abuse (SEA), and an updated version of the instrument, the SEA-2. Currently, Dr. Adams is studying the problem of coerced debt, a form of economic abuse that occurs when abusive partners create debt in their partners’ names via fraud, coercion, or manipulation.
In addition to her research, Dr. Adams has expertise in designing and evaluating community-based interventions and victim service programs. She has evaluated local, state, and national domestic violence and sexual assault victim service programs. Dr. Adams uses participatory evaluation methods to build evaluation capacity and foster organizational learning. For instance, she developed the “Expectations to Change” (E2C) process, a participatory method that provides evaluation stakeholders with the opportunity to engage with evaluation data, develop their own interpretations, generate recommendations, and plan tangible action steps for creating change within their organization. She also trains other evaluators to use the E2C process with their clients. She serves on the Michigan Association for Evaluation board, is an American Evaluation Association member, and has published in the American Journal of Evaluation.
Selected Publications
- Adams, A. E., Beeble, M. L., Biswas, A., Flynn, R. L., & Vollinger, L. (2023). An exploratory study of financial health as an antecedent of economic abuse among women seeking help for intimate partner violence. Violence against women, 10778012231170867.
- Adams, A. E., Littwin, A. K., & Javorka, M. (2020). The frequency, nature, and effects of coerced debt among a national sample of women seeking help for intimate partner violence. Violence against women, 26(11), 1324-1342.
- Adams, A. E., Greeson, M. R., Littwin, A. K., & Javorka, M. (2020). The Revised Scale of Economic Abuse (SEA2): Development and initial psychometric testing of an updated measure of economic abuse in intimate relationships. Psychology of Violence, 10(3), 268.
