Imagine you are in a relationship in which your partner unilaterally decides how your combined income is spent or saved, without allowing you to give input. Perhaps they hide bills from you or refuse to tell you how much money is in your shared account, leaving you feeling trapped and powerless.

The above dynamic has a name: economic abuse. Economic abuse is when one partner in a relationship controls the other’s access to money and other financial resources, such as car loans or mortgages. But not every economically abusive relationship is the same. Some are characterized by economic control, in which a person prevents their partner from having a bank account or credit card in their name. Others fall into the category of economic exploitation, as when the controlling partner uses the other’s credit without their consent or forces them to sign financial documents they don’t understand. Then there’s employment sabotage, in which the abuser shows up at a partner’s workplace to cause trouble or make them quit their job.

Although the signs of economic abuse can be difficult to spot, it is nevertheless devastating financially, emotionally, and mentally. In my own research on economically abusive relationships in the Chinese mainland, my team and I collected data from 445 young Chinese adults aged 18 to 35 years old who are cohabitating with partners. We found that economically abusive relationships were correlated to significant decreases in financial well-being and relationship satisfaction, as well as an increase in feelings of hopelessness.

Concerningly, among those surveyed, we found economic abuse to be more common than we expected, with neither men nor women immune from its effects. On a scale of one — no experience of economic abuse — to five — very frequent experience of economic abuse — our survey produced an average score of 2.48. Some 32.5% of respondents reported having been threatened by a partner to leave a job, while 30.5% reported having been physically abused by a partner to keep them from going to work.

Notably, the average score of 2.48 we found exceeds that found by earlier studies of economic abuse in China. A major reason for this is that our study focused on couples who cohabitate, whereas prior studies either included mostly married individuals or relied exclusively on individuals in non-cohabiting relationships.

Those same studies show that the likelihood of economic abuse occurring outside of marriage is four times higher than within marriages. Further, as compared to those in non-cohabiting dating relationships, unmarried cohabitating couples are at a generally higher risk of economic abuse, in part because moving in with a partner and starting to handle money together makes it easier for one partner to take advantage of the other. Even worse, in many jurisdictions across the world, the legal framework for protecting financial rights is designed for married couples, not cohabiting couples. This lack of protection perpetuates abuse and hinders people’s ability to escape unhealthy financial dynamics.

Severe as the issue is, there are measures people can take to protect themselves from economic abuse, including budgeting, saving, and making smart use of credit.

There are two major reasons why financial behaviors can help head off abusive relationships. First, research has found that the more financially savvy individuals are, the less likely they are to be economically controlled, exploited, or sabotaged. Our own study bore this out: One 24-year-old woman we interviewed recounted the story of how she had lent her identity number to an ex-boyfriend so he could take out a payday loan, only to find herself deep in debt. While the ex-boyfriend bears ultimate responsibility for his deception, access to better public education on financial risks might have helped the woman avoid falling into his trap.

Good money management can also contribute to more equitable relationships. Equity between two partners is crucial for preventing economic abuse. Couples in which both sides have an equal say in the relationship are less likely to exhibit patterns of economic abuse than those in which one partner controls everything.

Despite the importance of good money management, it should be noted that many young Chinese lack financial knowledge. Our study found that 30% to 40% of interviewees experienced issues such as lacking a budget, spending over their budgets, living paycheck to paycheck, or overdue credit card payments.

Policymakers should take this issue seriously. Although the handful of prosperous Chinese regions that take part in the PISA test lead the world in financial literacy, education on good money management is still lacking in much of the rest of the country. More resources and programs are needed to teach money management skills, financial literacy, and how to recognize the signs of economic abuse. New regulations should also be passed to protect cohabiting partners’ financial rights.

Editor: Cai Yineng; portrait artist: Wang Zhenhao.

(Header image: Visuals from Iconic Prototype and Cnythz/VCG, reedited by Sixth Tone)