NCJ Number
209195
Journal
Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 16 Issue: 10 Dated: October 2001 Pages: 1066-1081
Date Published
October 2001
Length
16 pages
Annotation
Sixty men arrested for domestic violence and referred by the court to a batterer intervention program completed measures of frequency of physical violence toward their female partner, need for dominance in a relationship, social desirability, and adult attachment style.
Abstract
The instruments used were a demographics questionnaire; the Relationship Questionnaire (Bartholomew and Horowitz, 1991), which focuses on attachment styles; the Dominance Motive Scale, which measures participants' felt need to exert control in a relationship; the Conflict Tactics Scale, which measures frequency of violence; and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, which measures a socially desirable response bias. A hierarchical regression analysis found that, after adjusting for the effect of social desirability, adult attachment style significantly moderated the relationship between need for dominance and frequency of violence. As hypothesized, insecurely attached men who also indicated a need for dominance in their relationship reported the most violence toward their female partners. Men who reported high levels of social desirability also reported less physical violence and a lower need for dominance in relationships; however, after controlling for social desirability, the relationship between need for dominance and physical violence was no longer significant. This finding suggests that the relationship between need for dominance and frequency of physical violence is mediated by social desirability response bias. The study did not support the hypothesis that need for dominance in a relationship and adult attachment style would be unique significant predictors of male violence toward female partners; however, there was evidence of a significant interaction of these predictors. 2 tables, 1 figure, and 53 references