Is a Family Therapy Systems Approach Incompatible With Treating Spouse Abuse?

• NCJ Number: 111949
• Author(s): D R Cook
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 9 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Presented at the American Psychological Association Sumposium, August 1987, New York, New York.

Annotation

Data for 600 undergraduate students, 200 adults, and 300 clinical subjects (psychiatric patients, substance abusers, and battered women) and for 455 nonclinical subjects (graduate and undergraduate students) indicate that 9.5 percent and 13 percent of the men in the 2 samples reported having been physically abusive.

Abstract

Of women in the two samples, 22 and 15.6 percent reported having been physically abused. Compared to nonabusive males, the abused males were significantly more likely to report having been physically abused by the father and/or mother, reported conflict between their parents, and reported spousal abuse in the family of origin. They were also significantly more likely to have experienced loss, parental alcoholism, childhood sexual abuse, and parental rejection. These data highlight that abusive men are themselves victims of abuse. They have histories of conflict, rejection, and fear of separation and abandonment. Spousal violence is a family affair and a family systems perspective is, therefore, crucial to treatment. While the battering male must take responsibility for his behavior, a family systems approach makes it possible for the therapist to approach the problem with empathy and with an undersanding of the hurt, fear, and anger such men experience.