NCJ Number
75265
Journal
Journal of Marriage and the Family Volume: 42 Issue: 1 Dated: (February 1980) Pages: 71-80
Date Published
1980
Length
10 pages
Annotation
A national sample of 2,143 males and females living as family units was queried concerning self and spousal violent behavior and self attitudes toward violent behavior in family situations.
Abstract
Respondents to the survey were randomly selected to ensure that approximately half were male and approximately half were female. Questions covered violent behavior attitudes related to child and spouse treatment. Slapping a child was found to be more widely accepted by the respondents than slapping a spouse. The majority of those who perceived child slapping as appropriate behavior for parents had used violence against their own children during the year previous to the survey. Of those who indicated that slapping one's spouse was necessary, normal, or good behavior, approximately 33 percent indicated that they had carried out an act of violence against their spouse within the reporting year. Proviolence attitudes were related to the incidence of violence against the participants as children. More mothers who indicated negative views of violence against children reported committing violent incidents than fathers, probably because mothers tend to spend more time with their children than fathers. Spouse behaviors tended to be in agreement; either both used violence or neither did. With respect both to physical punishment of one's children and to spousal violence, the findings show that a spouse's violence has much greater impact on the respondent's violence than the respondent's own attitudes about violence. Tabular data, footnotes, and 24 references are provided.