Socialization and Stress Explanations for Spouse Abuse

• NCJ Number: 117097
• Journal: Social Forces Volume: 67 Issue: 2 Dated: (1988) Pages: 473-491
• Author(s): J A Seltzer; D Kalmuss
• Date Published: 1988
• Length: 18 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1986 meetings of the American Sociological Association.

Annotation

This study examined the associations among socialization (childhood exposure to parent-parent or parent-child aggression), recent stressful experiences, economic strain, and spouse abuse using data from the 1976 National Survey of Family Violence.

Abstract

Results indicate that the joint effects of childhood exposure and strain on spouse abuse are additive rather than interactive. Adults exposed to violence in their childhood families and those exposed to recent stress and economic strain were more likely to have perpetrated spouse abuse in their current marriages than adults exposed to only one or neither of these factors. Childhood exposure to family violence had a substantially greater effect on spouse abuse than did either recent stress or economic strain. Both observing parents' marital aggression and experiencing parental aggression as a teenager were important predictors of spouse abuse, but the relationship-specific example provided by observation of parent-parent aggression was more strongly related to spouse abuse than was parent-child abuse. Results suggest that early socialization may have a greater impact on adults' subsequent marital behaviors than do current stress-producing events. 3 tables, 8 notes, and 17 references. (Author abstract modified)