Divorce or separation is one route towards addressing high conflict in marriages and may be a key route out of situations of significant domestic violence for women and children. However, divorce has been associated with feminisation of poverty and other negative outcomes which can be further exacerbated for victimised women. While there has been…

This paper examines the relationship between intimate partner violence and depression. A multicluster random household sample of U.S. couples was interviewed as part of a five-year national longitudinal study (response rate = 72%). Depression was assessed with the CES-D. The multivariate analyses for men showed that the odds of depression did not…

Drawing from social learning theories and symbolic interactionist understandings of social life, the authors suggest that physical punishment teaches aggressive and controlling strategies for solving the problems of living together and hinders the development of important problem-solving skills, specifically the ability to role take with others.…

Compares the rate of physical abuse of children and spouses from a 1975 study with rates from a 1985 replication. The 1985 rates were substantially lower than in 1975. Possible reasons for the lower rates are examined and evaluated. (Author/ABB)

The last decade has provided considerable research on the causes and effects of physical aggression in the family, but much less has been accomplished on the causes and effects of verbal/symbolic aggression. This verbal/symbolic aggression is defined as a communication, either verbal or nonverbal, intended to cause psychological pain to another…