NCJ Number
165020
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 20 Issue: 11 Dated: (November 1996) Pages: 1019-1030
Date Published
1996
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Data from a community sample of 159 married women and men were analyzed to determine the relationship between adults' reports of the nature of the early parenting and abuse they received and the quality of their current marital relationship.
Abstract
Participants all had children between ages 1 and 10 years and were recruited from pediatricians' offices, child care centers, and swimming pools in central and northern Virginia. The sample included 94 women and 65 men. The data were analyzed using regression techniques. Results revealed that verbal abuse in childhood predicted marital conflict in women, and the caring parenting women received predicted the depth of their marital relationship. The abuse variables did not predict any dimension of the men's current marital relationships, but overprotection was significantly predictive of conflict in their marriage. None of the demographic variables, including income, education, and the number of siblings, predicted any dimension of marital quality for either men and women. Further analysis using log transformation revealed that for men, physical abuse and overprotection were equally predictive of marital conflict. Findings suggested that abuse and early parent experiences predict marital functioning in a nonclinical sample, but that differences exist in the patterns for men and women. Tables and 25 references (Author abstract modified)