Excuses, Excuses: Accounting for the Effects of Partner Violence on Marital Satisfaction and Stability

• NCJ Number: 173253
• Journal: Violence and Victims Volume: 10 Issue: 4 Dated: Winter 1995 Pages: 315-326
• Author(s): J Katz; I Arias; S R H Beach; G Brody; P Roman
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 12 pages
• Grant Number(s): 41487-08; R01-AA-0224A
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services; National Institute of Mental Health
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

A community sample of 66 married couples completed a comprehensive battery of marital assessments, and the objective of analysis was to understand processes that led to marital dissatisfaction and dissolution among women who were targets of relationship violence.

Abstract

Because attributional tendencies may often forecast marital behavior and because alcohol use is often seen as providing an excuse for deviant behavior, the study examined two potential moderators of the associations between husband violence and wife marital outcomes, wife attributional style and husband problem drinking tendencies. Data were collected using the Conflict Tactics Scale, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, the Marital Status Inventory, the Relationship Attribution Measure, and the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test. Results suggested responsibility attributions moderated the associations between husband violence and wife marital dissatisfaction but exerted a direct effect on wife disposition toward divorce. Husband problem drinking moderated the impact of husband violence only on wife disposition toward divorce. As would be expected from an "excuse" model of the associations between violence and marital outcomes, violence had less of an impact on marital satisfaction and divorce ideation when wives attributed responsibility for negative spouse behavior as external to their husbands and when husbands were problem drinkers. 35 references, 1 note, and 3 table