NCJ Number
175163
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 13 Issue: 4 Dated: December 1998 Pages: 315-344
Date Published
1998
Length
30 pages
Annotation
Predisposing risk factors for husband-to-wife physical and emotional abusiveness were assessed in 175 community volunteer couples.
Abstract
Each of the men was living with his wife at the time of this study, and the majority (90.9 percent) had been living with the current partner for at least 10 years. The study involved one laboratory visit, during which the husband and wife individually filled out a number of questionnaires about themselves and their relationship. The assessment of husband-to-wife abuse was obtained from questionnaires completed by both spouses; all other measures were derived solely from the husband. Negative life events, marital dissatisfaction, attitudes regarding aggression, and employment status accounted for unique variance in the prediction of husbands' total abusiveness. Alcohol impairment, while not in itself a significant predictor, moderated the effects of life stress and marital dissatisfaction. Men reporting alcohol impairment, combined with high negative life events or with high marital dissatisfaction, exhibited greater abusiveness than predicted by the additive effects of these individual risk factors. Men exhibiting emotional abuse, compared to those without emotional abuse, scored higher on hostility and attitudes that condoned aggression; whereas men exhibiting severe physical aggression, compared to those without severe physical aggression, reported more negative life events, more marital dissatisfaction, more hostility, and more exposure to abuse in their family of origin. The current data highlight the importance of variables that fluctuate over time, as well as the co-occurrence of such variables in understanding husband to wife abusiveness. 3 tables, 2 figures, and 90 references