This study used a sequential mixed-method longitudinal design to collect data from a sample of women recently divorced from an abusive partner. The researchers used public divorce records to recruit a sample of 188 women in Texas, 126 women with coerced debt and a comparison group of 62 without.

The researchers collected quantitative data through a self-administered online survey and telephone interviews with the full sample. They identified instances of coerced debt with an assessment tool used in conjunction with participants’ credit reports as well as a tested methodology (life history calendar) to aid in the recall of focal experiences.

The quantitative data was used to investigate:

1) the types and amounts of coerced debt incurred in victims’ names, tactics abuser use to incur it, and how victims learn of fraud;

2) differences between abusive relationships with and without coerced debt;

3) the extent to which help for coerced debt is available, accessible, and acceptable through divorce and debtor-creditor law; and

4) the extent of coerced debt’s effects on women’s credit scores in the months after divorce.

Additionally, the researchers conducted in-depth face-to-face qualitative interviews with a subsample of 38 women, 27 with coerced debt and 11 without.

The qualitative data was used to gain a deeper, more nuanced understanding of how victims of coerced debt experience it in the broader context of abuse, facilitators of and barriers to attaining help through the divorce system, and the process by which coerced debt shapes victims’ lives.