Although the counselor has a crucial role to play in helping the battered woman make decisions and gain some control over her life, large-scale community change is necessary to alter the abused wife's situation. (Author)

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)

Describes a treatment program for couples who mishandle anger or are physically abusive. The treatment endorses the elimination of demonstrations of anger and elaborates upon ways to identify preliminary anger cues. Abusiveness is unacceptable. Methods to improve problem-solving skills and to enhance overall enjoyment of the relationship are also…

Investigates interspousal violence using a model of interpersonal violence derived from the aggression literature. Finds that destructive forms of communication such as verbal aggressiveness lead to physical violence, whereas constructive forms such as argumentativeness reduce the chance of escalation to physical aggression. (SR)

Spouse abuse research has indicated that marital violence occurs in all age groups, among all races, and in all levels of education and social class. To provide further information by comparing battered and exbattered women, 18 battered and 14 exbattered women completed a questionnaire about themselves and their assailants. Information was…

Problems related to family violence are complex and multi-faceted and involve large numbers of people in this country. A number of types of violence in families are identified initially; however, the manual focuses on the concerns of battered women, or interspousal abuse. Information focuses on: (1) the nature, causes and effects of family…

Examined several hypotheses concerning heavy drinking and marital violence. Subjects, 320 married and cohabiting men who participated in a nationally representative study of alcohol consumption, completed scales assessing hostility, self-consciousness, marital satisfaction, and the Alcohol Dependence Scale. Results indicated that alcohol use was…

Estimated odds of mild and severe husband-to-wife physical aggression in 11,870 white men. Being younger, having lower income, and having alcohol problem significantly increased odds of either mild or severe physical aggression. Drug problem uniquely increased risk of severe physical aggression. Marital discord and depression further increased…

Although alcohol is frequently cited by battered wives and the general public as a cause of marital violence, few researchers actually propose a direct causal relationship between alcohol and marital violence. Interviews were conducted to investigate the role of alcohol in the violent marriages of 185 women and the nonviolent marriages of 89…

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…

In order to identify causes of spousal abuse, current research efforts have attempted to reconstruct the communicative components of physically aggressive encounters within the family. An interactionist model of intrafamily violence, proposed by D. A. Infante, suggests that the interaction of personal, situational, and societal conditions may lead…

This paper reviews the social science literature dealing with gender relations in marriage and the issues of wife abuse. It is argued that the old anti-woman biases of the literature have not really diminished under the impact of feminism. The sexist assumptions and victim-blaming focus of the new battery literature are examined through…