NCJ Number
164613
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1996) Pages: 411-423
Date Published
1996
Length
13 pages
Annotation
An examination of self-report scales of 160 men and 76 of their partners or former partners found significant correlations between jealousy and abusiveness (for coupled dyads) or intrusiveness (for separated dyads).
Abstract
Testing and clinical assessment was conducted on 120 court- referred and self-referred males interviewed by the Vancouver Assaultive Husbands Project, the Victoria Family Violence Institute, and the Burnaby Family Life Institute. A demographically matched control group of 40 men was also assessed. Further, 43 female partners of the assaultive group and 33 partners of the control group provided data that related to the men's psychological abusiveness. Only North American acculturated men were included in the current sample to avoid interpretative problems that might arise from language difficulties or from various cultural norms. The study assessed differential patterns of attachment, emotional expression (anger and jealousy), presence of current trauma symptoms, and a style of personality called Borderline Personality Organization for these two groups. Findings show that jealousy correlated significantly with a variety of measures of physical and emotional abusiveness completed by female partners of men. It also correlated significantly with ex-partners' reports of intrusiveness by their former partner. Jealousy also showed a significant relationship with self-reported anger scores. None of these relationships were affected when corrections were made for social desirability. Jealousy was related to borderline personality and to MCMI-II measures of post-traumatic stress disorder. Rejection-sensitivity leading to pathological acts, such as abusiveness and intrusiveness, is concluded by the authors to originate in early insecure attachment and exposure to shaming experiences. 2 tables and 41 references