Motivations and Justification for Partner Aggression in a Sample of African American College Women

• NCJ Number: 229490
• Journal: Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma Volume: 18 Issue: 7 Dated: October-November 2009 Pages: 698-717
• Author(s): J. Celeste Walley-Jean; Suzanne Swan
• Date Published: November 2009
• Length: 20 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Special issue on Female Offenders of Intimate Partner Violence, Part II, for additional information see NCJ-229488-489 and NCJ-229491-494.

Annotation

This study investigated the use, experience, and conceptualization of partner violence in African-American college-aged women.

Abstract

The results revealed that African-American women in the current sample were using intimate partner violence (IPV) primarily as a destructive method of communication. Furthermore, justifications for aggression, in general, were significantly related to the perpetration of minor physical aggression. Implications of the study for the prevention of dating violence among college women are discussed. Little is known about African-American college women's use, experience, and conceptualizations of IPV. The current study addressed this gap in the literature by investigating a sample of African-American college women's motivations for perpetration of psychological and physical IPV and justifications for hypothetical aggressive behavior, using factors derived from a factor analysis of the Motivations and Effects Questionnaire (Follingstad, Wright, Lloyd, and Sebastian, 1991). Tables and references (Published Abstract)