NCJ Number
191896
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 16 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2001 Pages: 375-384
Date Published
December 2001
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This study tested the hypothesis that court-ordered batterers would display higher levels of interpersonal dependency in their primary relationship than would nonviolent men.
Abstract
The study involved two groups of men (batterers and nonbatterers). The battering sample consisted of 105 physically violent men arrested and ordered by the court into treatment for domestic violence. The nonbattering sample consisted of 25 men with no identified history of domestic violence. Data collection involved obtaining Interpersonal Dependency Inventory (IDI) scores from both groups of men. The IDI is a 48-item, self-report instrument designed to measure interpersonal dependency, which the authors of the IDI have defined as "a complex of thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors which revolve around the need to associate closely with, interact with, and rely upon valued other people." Previous recent empirical investigations of interpersonal dependency among maritally violent men have found that these men exhibited increased levels of interpersonal dependency when compared with nonviolent men. The results of the current study, however, found no significant difference in level of interpersonal dependency between the court-ordered batterers and the nonviolent men. Possible explanations for the failure of this research to replicate earlier findings are explored and discussed. The authors recommend that more research be conducted before the role of interpersonal dependency in the etiology and maintenance of domestic violence can be clearly understood. 3 tables and 14 references