Physical and psychological partner aggression across a decade: a growth curve analysis

The course of physical and psychological partner aggression was investigated over a decade in 203 wives from Suffolk County, New York. Wives reported on their own and on their partners' aggression at one month before marriage and 6, 18, 30, and 120 months after marriage. This follow-up is the longest period over which partner aggression has been examined. Prevalence rates of wife's report of wife- and husband-perpetrated physical aggression were 48% and 35% at premarriage, and 13% and 10% ten years later. Using HLM, husband- and wife-perpetrated physical aggression were found to decrease on average approximately one act of aggression per month, regardless of severity and even when controlling for changes in marital satisfaction. There was no significant pattern of change in psychological aggression. These findings are consistent with cross-sectional analyses, and suggest that physical partner aggression decreases in community samples of couples.     

Empathic Accuracy and Aggression in Couples: Individual and Dyadic Links

The authors examined links between intimate partner aggression and empathic accuracy—how accurately partners can read one another's emotions—during highly affective moments from couples' (N = 109) video recall of laboratory‐based discussions of upsetting events. Less empathic accuracy between partners was generally related to higher levels of aggression by both partners. More specific patterns emerged based on the type of aggression and emotion being expressed. Women's poorer ability to read their partners' vulnerable and positive emotions was linked to both men's and women's greater physical and psychological aggression. Moreover, women's inaccuracy in reading their partner's hostility was linked to women's greater psychological aggression toward the men. Men's inaccuracy in reading their partner's hostility was linked to women's (not men's) greater physical and psychological aggression. The results suggest important nuances in the links between empathic inaccuracy and aggression, and implications for prevention and treatment of partner aggression are discussed.     

Validation of Fear of Partner Scale

Therapists have a responsibility to ascertain if psychological aggression, physical aggression, sexual aggression exist, and if there is fear of the partner. A fear of partner measure was evaluated in 100 couples who sought relationship feedback. Fear of partner's psychological, physical, and sexual aggression was related to actual reports of such behavior. For both men and women, fear of speaking in front of partner and fear of being in therapy with partner were related to reports of psychological aggression perpetrated by the partner, dominance, and isolation by the partner, and one's own marital dissatisfaction. Among respondents who were aggressed against, more men than women reported fear of participating in therapy with their partner. The measure herein can be used to determine the extent of fear of aggression by partners and to assist in the decision‐making about the appropriateness of marital therapy and divorce mediation.     

Perceived verbal conflict behaviors associated with physical aggression and sexual coercion in dating relationships: a gender-sensitive analysis

We studied perceived partner verbal behaviors associated with participants' use of dating aggression. Men's reports of their partners' demanding, controlling, and psychologically abusive behaviors during conflicts were expected to predict men's perpetration against partners. In contrast, women's reports of their partners' withdrawal were expected to predict women's perpetration. Data were collected from heterosexual undergraduates (N = 223) in exclusive dating relationships. Participants' reports of partner demands and partner psychological abuse were associated with participants' use of physical aggression and sexual coercion. Reports of partner withdrawal and partner controlling behaviors were associated with participants' sexual coercion only. Significant moderating effects of gender emerged. As expected, partner demands, controlling behaviors, and psychological abuse were associated with physical aggression and sexual coercion in men, but not women. Partner withdrawal was associated with sexual coercion in both women and men. We conclude that gender-sensitive approaches are necessary to understand and prevent verbal conflict patterns associated with physical aggression and sexual coercion in intimate relationships.     

Risk Indicators of Elder Mistreatment in the Community

ABSTRACT

This study examined risk indicators of chronic verbal aggression, physical aggression, and financial mistreatment in a population-based sample of 1,797 independently living elderly in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Included were socio-demographic characteristics, physical and psychological health, and functional capacity. The data were collected using standardized interviews that took place in the homes of the respondents. The results showed that chronic verbal aggression was associated with an elder living with a partner or other(s) and in poor or bad health. Physical aggression was associated with an elder living with a partner or other(s) and having depressive symptoms. Finally, financial mistreatment was associated with being male, living alone, being partially dependent in instrumental activities of daily living and having depressive symptoms. The results indicate that the risk indicators of victims of financial mistreatment differ from those of chronic verbal aggression and physical aggression, suggesting that financial mistreatment may occur more often as a single form of abuse whereas verbal and physical aggression may more frequently occur together.     

Definitions of elder abuse in an Italian sample

The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to analyze definitions of elder abuse in an Italian convenience sample. Fifty-three Italian participants (15 males, 38 females) provided examples of mild, moderate, and extreme mistreatment of older individuals by their adult children. Analyses were conducted to identify frequently mentioned types of abuse and to determine how severe they were judged to be. Also examined was the extent to which gender and age contributed to response patterns. Most examples of extreme elder abuse made reference to physical abuse and neglect, while references to psychological aggression and neglect predominated as examples of moderate and mild abuse. Examples of neglect appeared with equal frequency at all levels of severity, but physical aggression was mentioned primarily as a form of extreme abuse, and psychological aggression was mentioned more frequently in examples of moderate and mild abuse. The most frequently identified types of specific abuse were abandonment, verbal abuse, emotional abuse, and psychological neglect. When giving examples of extreme abuse, females mentioned more instances of financial exploitation than males. They also gave more examples of verbal aggression and lack of respect as instances of moderate abuse and behaviors reflecting power or control as examples of mild abuse. A statistically significant negative relationship was found between age and the number of examples given of particular types of mistreatment at each of the levels of severity of abuse.     

Men’s Aggression Toward Women: A 10‐Year Panel Study

The present study examined the longitudinal course of men’s physical and psychological aggression toward a partner across 10 years, using a community sample of young couples (N = 194) from at‐risk backgrounds. Findings indicated that men’s aggression decreased over time and that women’s antisocial behavior and depressive symptoms predicted changes in men’s aggression. This suggests the importance of studying social processes within the dyad to have a better understanding of men’s aggression toward a partner.     

Definitions of Elder Abuse in an Italian Sample

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to analyze definitions of elder abuse in an Italian convenience sample. Fifty-three Italian participants (15 males, 38 females) provided examples of mild, moderate, and extreme mistreatment of older individuals by their adult children. Analyses were conducted to identify frequently mentioned types of abuse and to determine how severe they were judged to be. Also examined was the extent to which gender and age contributed to response patterns. Most examples of extreme elder abuse made reference to physical abuse and neglect, while references to psychological aggression and neglect predominated as examples of moderate and mild abuse. Examples of neglect appeared with equal frequency at all levels of severity, but physical aggression was mentioned primarily as a form of extreme abuse, and psychological aggression was mentioned more frequently in examples of moderate and mild abuse. The most frequently identified types of specific abuse were abandonment, verbal abuse, emotional abuse, and psychological neglect. When giving examples of extreme abuse, females mentioned more instances of financial exploitation than males. They also gave more examples of verbal aggression and lack of respect as instances of moderate abuse and behaviors reflecting power or control as examples of mild abuse. A statistically significant negative relationship was found between age and the number of examples given of particular types of mistreatment at each of the levels of severity of abuse.     

Insecure Attachment Behavior and Partner Violence: Incorporating Couple Perceptions of Insecure Attachment and Relational Aggression

Intimate partner violence and insecure attachment are therapeutically relevant concepts when working with couples. The link between attachment and intimate partner violence has been examined in the literature, but an area of aggression that often goes unexamined is relational aggression, or using third parties as a means of being aggressive toward a partner. We asked how participants' attachment behaviors were related to their own and partners' relational and physical aggression. We used structural equation modeling to estimate actor–partner interdependence among these relationships in 644 heterosexual couples. Results indicated significant partner paths from attachment to relational aggression, as well as significant actor paths between relational aggression and physical aggression. Implications were discussed. Data for this study were collected from the RELATE assessment.     

Male-initiated partner abuse during marital separation prior to divorce

The purpose of this study was to assess predictors of male-initiated psychological and physical partner abuse during the separation process prior to divorce among a sample of 80 divorced fathers who reported no physical violence during their marriages. The predictor variables examined were male gender-role identity, female-initiated divorces, dependence on one's former wife, depression, anxiety, and coparental conflict. Through ordinary least square (OLS) regression techniques, it was found that male gender-role identity was positively related to male-initiated psychological abuse during separation. Logistic regression analyses revealed that male-initiated psychological abuse, anxiety level, coparental conflict, and dependence on one's former spouse increased the odds of a man engaging in physical abuse. However, depression decreased the odds of separation physical abuse. The models predicting both male-initiated psychological abuse (F = 2.20, p < .05, R2 = .15) and physical violence during the separation process were significant (Model chi2 = 35.00, df= 7, p < .001).     

Correlates of wife assault in Hong Kong Chinese families

The objective of this study was the risk factors of wife assault in Hong Kong Chinese families. The sample included 107 battered women from a refuge for battered women. Factor analysis revealed risk factors like dominance, stress, poor anger management, aggressive personality, conflict, lack of empathy, masculine gender role stress, sense of insecurity, relationship distress, and violent socialization. Correlation analysis indicated that dominance, spousal conflict, and sense of insecurity increase the likelihood of carrying out minor physical assault and using psychological aggression, while aggressive personality predicts severe physical assault and injury. The risk factors were explained in terms of traditional Chinese concepts of gender role expectations of men and women and face orientations. The present study provides some evidence relating to the risk factors of wife assault in Chinese families.     

Modeling the Effects of Expressed Emotion,Psychiatric Symptomology,and Marital Quality Levels on Male and Female Verbal Aggression

Previous research has linked expressed emotion (EE) levels and psychiatric symptomology, whereas other empirical efforts have examined the relationship between EE and marital relationship variables. Still other research has linked psychological conditions with acts of aggression, and the impact of marital issues within this domain of inquiry also has been explored. The study presented here examined the combined effects of EE, marital quality, and psychiatric symptomology on displays of verbal aggression by both relationship partners. Both husbands' and wives' reports of marital quality were predictive of both husbands' and wives' verbal aggression levels; here, reports of lower marital quality were associated with higher levels of verbal aggression. Additionally, husbands' and wives' reports of psychological symptomology in self and partner were important paths to marital quality, as were husbands' and wives' reports of EE levels. Further, some evidence was generated that supports the mediating role of marital quality with regard to EE and psychological symptomology. However, the overall fit indices of the models tested in this empirical effort were modest. Limitations that concern the instruments utilized in the present study are discussed in this regard.     

Patterns of abuse in male same-sex relationships

Previous studies of abuse in male same-sex relationships have been limited by convenience samples and/or by incomplete assessments of partner abuse. We examined patterns of same-sex partner abuse in a random sample of 284 gay and bisexual men. Respondents reported on perpetration and receipt of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse over multiple time frames, as well as injuries resulting from abuse. Almost all respondents reported psychological abuse, more than one-third reported physical abuse, and 10% reported having engaged in unwanted sexual activity because of partner force or threats of force. More than half of recipients of partner violence reported sustaining injury. We found strong associations between different forms of abuse, and between severity of abuse receipt and perpetration.     

Gender differences in psychological,physical, and sexual aggression among college students using the revised conflict tactics scales

In response to criticisms of the Conflict Tactics Scales, Straus revised the original scale to include sexual aggression and injury. The purpose of the present study was to use this new scale to replicate and expand existing knowledge of psychological, physical, and sexual aggression in dating relationships. Four-hundred-eighty-one college students completed the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales. As expected, females reported perpetrating more psychological aggression than males; there were no gender differences in reported physical aggression; and psychological and physical aggression tended to co-occur. Contrary to previous research, there were no gender differences in injuries. As expected, males reported perpetrating more sexual coercion than females; however, females also reported perpetrating sexual aggression, and there were no gender differences in reported victimization. For males, sexual coercion perpetration (not victimization) was related to the perpetration and victimization of physical and psychological aggression. For females, both sexual coercion perpetration and victimization were related to the perpetration and victimization of psychological aggression and victimization from physical aggression, but not to physical aggression perpetration.     

Treating intimate partner violence within intact couple relationships: outcomes of multi-couple versus individual couple therapy

An experimental design was used to determine outcomes of a domestic violence-focused treatment program for couples that choose to stay together after mild-to-moderate violence has occurred. Forty-two couples were randomly assigned to either individual couple or multi-couple group treatment. Nine couples served as the comparison group. Male violence recidivism rates 6 months after treatment were significantly lower for the multi-couple group (25%) than for the comparison group (66%). In contrast, men in the individual couple condition were not significantly less likely to recidivate (43%) than those in the comparison group. In addition, marital satisfaction increased significantly, and both marital aggression and acceptance of wife battering decreased significantly among individuals who participated in multi-couple group therapy, but not among those who participated in individual couple therapy or the comparison group.     

Genetic and environmental influences on intimate partner aggression: a preliminary study

Social learning theory posits that, because aggression against intimates runs in families, children learn how to behave aggressively through watching their parents and being reinforced for their own aggression. This theory considers only environmental influences on familial resemblance; however, familial resemblance could also be due to genetic factors. The current study uses a twin design (134 monozygotic, 41 dizygotic) to examine the extent to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to individual differences in intimate aggression. Model-fitting analyses consistently showed that shared genes explained the familial resemblance in psychological and physical intimate partner aggression; the remaining variance was explained by unique environments. Multivariate model-fitting analyses showed that most of the genetic influences responsible for the receipt of aggression were also responsible for its use, suggesting that there is a genetic predisposition to get involved in aggressive relationships. These results challenge the prevailing theory to explain familial resemblance in intimate aggression.     

Conditional Inference Trees: A Method for Predicting Intimate Partner Violence

A number of different methodologies have been employed to investigate the complex relationship between psychological and physical aggression. Herein, a method of unbiased recursive partitioning (conditional inference trees) was applied to a longitudinal sample to identify cutoffs of psychological aggression at baseline that differentiate between individuals who do and do not perpetrate physical aggression at follow‐up. The algorithm categorized men into low‐ and high‐risk groups, and women into mild‐, moderate‐, or high‐risk categories of perpetration. Couples responded anonymously to a self‐report measure of psychological and physical aggression (CTS2) at baseline and a 12‐month follow‐up. Sensitivity analyses for predicting physical aggression reached as high as 59% for women and 60% for men.     

Anger, irrational beliefs, and dysfunctional attitudes in violent dating relationships

The purpose of the present investigation was to evaluate whether perpetrators of dating violence could be differentiated from their nonviolent counterparts on measures of anger and cognitive distortion, specifically Ellis's (1994) irrational beliefs and Beck's (1976) dysfunctional attitudes. Of the 95 male and 152 female undergraduates surveyed, 27% (24 males and 43 females) reported using some form of physical aggression against their current dating partner in the past year. On a self-report measure of anger (State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory), violent individuals reported higher levels of Anger Out and lower levels of Anger Control compared to nonviolent participants. While there were no differences between violent and nonviolent participants' levels of Trait Anger, the results suggest that violent individuals have difficulty controlling angry feelings when they arise, which may increase the likelihood of externally directed forms of anger expression. No significant group differences emerged on questionnaire measures of irrational beliefs and dysfunctional attitudes. Within the violent sample, there was no differential pattern of correlations between measures of anger and cognition relative to the nonviolent sample. The present data suggest that while trait-based measures of cognitive distortion explain little variance in self-reported acts of dating violence, future research should investigate whether (a) cognitive distortions are present during affect-inducing partner conflict situations, or (b) vary with violence severity.     

Psychological aggression in dating relationships: predictive models for males and females

Variables related to the use of physical aggression in dating relationships and conflict management strategies were used to predict the use of psychological aggression in courtship. Individual factors (i.e., variables associated with threat susceptibility) and situational variables (i.e., relationship length and emotional commitment to the partner, conflict management strategies, and weekly alcohol intake) were proposed to be important in the prediction of male's and female's use of psychological aggression with their partners. Our findings suggest that these variables successfully predict the use of psychologically aggressive acts in courtship. Further, interactions with sex of participant suggest that different variables are important in the prediction of males' and females' use of such negative behaviors. These differences in the relationships between the predictors and criteria for males and females suggest not only divergent predictive models but also potential motivational differences in the employment of such tactics.