NCJ Number
218931
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 22 Issue: 4 Dated: May 2007 Pages: 211-222
Date Published
May 2007
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study compared court-referred Chinese immigrant male batterers (n=64) and controls (n=62) in terms of the risk factors of self-reported early exposure to violence in their family of origin and positive attitudes toward marital violence.
Abstract
The study found that although early exposure to violence in family of origin correlated positively with marital violence, this factor alone did not differentiate the batterers from the controls, since both groups were widely exposed to it. Whereas marital violence correlated positively with early exposure to marital violence in the batterers, it correlated positively with depression in the control group. Positive attitudes toward marital violence correlated positively with marital violence and was the variable that distinguished the batterers from the controls. It also partially mediated the effect of early exposure to violence on marital violence. The two risk factors together accounted for 21.9 percent of the variance in marital violence over and above sociodemographic variables and marital dissatisfaction. The findings suggest that education and treatment programs should focus on the repudiation of positive attitudes toward marital violence. The Chinese immigrant male batterers were referred by courts in the New York metropolitan area between January 2001 and April 2003. The control group was composed of Chinese immigrant men recruited from the New York metropolitan area during the same period. The controls had no involvement in intimate partner violence in the past year. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire measured self-reported childhood abuse and neglect, and the Conflict Tactics Scales assessed participants' marital aggression over the past year. The Inventory of Beliefs about Wife Beating measured attitudes toward intimate partner violence. 6 tables, 1 figure, and 44 references