Social Stress and Marital Violence in a National Sample of American Families

• NCJ Number: 70547
• Journal: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Volume: 347 Dated: (June 20, 1980) Pages: 229-250
• Author(s): M A Straus
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 22 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Paper is one of a series of publications of the Family Violence Research Program at the University of New Hampshire

Annotation

This study was designed to determine the extent to which stressful life experiences are associated with assault between husbands and wives, and to explore the reasons for such an association.

Abstract

The data was collected from a nationally representative sample of 2,143 American couples. Stress was measured by an instrument patterned after the Homes and Rahe scale which consisted of a list of 18 stressful events that could have occurred during the year covered by the survey. Assault was measured by the severe violence index of the Family Conflict Tactics Scales. This probes whether any of the following violent acts had occurred in the course of a family dispute: punching, kicking, biting, hitting with an object, beating, and using a knife or gun. The findings show that respondents who experienced none of the 18 stresses in the index had the lowest rate of assault. The assault rate increased as the number of stresses experienced increased. This applies to assaults by wives as well as by husbands, but is most clear in the case of assaultive wives. Although wives were less assaultive under normal conditions, under stress they were more assaultive than the husbands. The second part of the analysis was based on the theory (proven) that stress by itself does not necessarily lead to violence. Physical punishment by fathers and parents who hit each other train men to respond to stress by violence. Men who assault their wives believe that physical punishment of children and slapping a spouse are appropriate behaviors. Moreover, men under stress are more likely to assault their wives if the marriage marriage is not an important and rewarding part of their lives. Education does not affect the link between stress and violence. However, low income and a low status occupation do, perhaps because these are indicators of additional stresses. Men who believe that the husband should be the dominant person in a marriage, and especially husbands who have actually achieved such a power position, had assault rates from one-and-a-half to three times higher than stressed men in more equalitarian marriages. Men who were socially isolated had higher rates of assault on their wives. Notes on stress index modification and wives as victims, 36 references, and tabular and graphic data are appended. (Author abstract modified)