NCJ Number
178834
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 14 Issue: 3 Dated: September 1999 Pages: 251-266
Date Published
September 1999
Length
16 pages
Annotation
Research and clinical reports on men who are aggressive toward their intimate partners have found that these men tend to behave in highly controlling ways toward such partners (e.g., restricting their social interactions, monitoring of activities, and reducing decision making power); this study tests the hypothesis that men and women in violent dating relationships appraise such behaviors differently than individuals in nonviolent relationships.
Abstract
Based on clinical and empirical partner-abuse literature, 119 college students rated the extent to which they perceived hypothetical behaviors toward a partner as "controlling." Results suggest that individuals who had either engaged in or received partner aggression appraised restrictive, domineering, and coercive behaviors from a male to a female partner as well as from a female to a male partner as less controlling than individuals who had neither perpetrated nor received partner aggression. Men also viewed those behaviors as less controlling than did women. Generalizability, clinical implications, and directions for future research are discussed. 3 tables, 1 figure, and 42 references