Argues for two distinct forms of couple violence. Review of large-sample surveys and data gathered from women's shelters suggests that some families suffer from occasional violence by either husbands or wives (common couple violence), while other families are terrorized by systematic male violence (patriarchal terrorism). Implications are…

Interviewed and physically assessed 102 married men in an attempt to develop a biopsychosocial model of male domestic violence. Used Tobit analysis to identify significant predictors. Analyzed separately, each domain was significantly related to male domestic violence. When considered together, only the biological and social domains yielded…

Uses social bonding theory to address the connection between violent family heritage and violence or nonviolence in adult intimate relationships. Findings show that, despite violent family histories, men who develop strong attachments and who perceive negative sanction threats from significant others, are more prone to nonviolence with female…

Explores variation between first marriages and remarriages in the incidence of spouse abuse. Experiences of individuals prior to remarriage account for higher rates of spouse abuse in remarried families, regardless of complexity, than in intact, never-divorced families. (Author/ABL)

Considered perceptions of relationship quality (positive communication, caring gestures, recollections of happiest times) in 81 discordant clinic and 51 nondiscordant community couples. Spouses in nondistressed community marriages reported more frequent and higher quality positive communication and longer lasting and more recent happiest memories…

Religious commitment is found to differentiate levels of both communication and physical violence for both wives and husbands in Quaker families. High levels of peace activism are associated with low levels of marital violence for wives but with high levels for husbands, which suggests that commitment to Quaker principles is confounded with…

The introduction to this paper seeks to clarify and distinguish the concepts of "conflict,""conflict of interest,""hostility," and "violence." The main part of the paper describes the Conflict Tactics (CT) Scales, which are designed to measure the use of reasoning, verbal agression, and violence within the…

Used survey data from 619 husbands residing in Bangkok, Thailand, to assess their use of physical force against their wives. Results provide strong support for importance of socioeconomic status, marital instability, and verbal marital conflict as predictors of Thai wife abuse. (Author/NB)

Data from a sample of 2,143 adult men and women were used to explore the relationship between wives' dependency on marriage, and wife abuse. Results indicated that it is economic and not psychological dependency which keeps women in severely abusive marriages. (Author)

Presents a theoretical perspective that integrates elements of social structural and social psychological explanations of spouse abuse. Suggests certain types of status inconsistency and status incompatibility involve very high risks of spouse abuse, particularly life-threatening violence. Other types of inconsistency seem to protect couples from…

Surveyed students who had viewed parental violence (N=44); who had viewed nonviolent discord (N=43); and whose parents were satisfactorily married (N=77). Results indicated that students who had viewed parental marital violence were significantly more anxious than those from satisfactory relationships, and that women who viewed violence were more…

Addresses effects of reporting bias on spouses' answers to questions by comparing one-partner and couple data on marital violence. Results indicate significant underreporting of violence, and that some predictors of violence are significantly related to underreporting by one spouse. (JPS)

Examined relationship between verbal and physical aggression in marriage, using data from 1985 National Family Violence Re-Survey. Results indicated that when physical aggression occurred, verbal aggression occurred also. Concludes that for male-to-female aggression subculture of violence theory best explains movement from verbal to physical…