|
...2002; Stets Straus, 1990). The domains of impact of marital aggression on women are both interpersonal and intrapersonal. Specifically, in the interpersonal domain, marital aggression typically accompanies compromised marital communication (Burman, John, & Margolin, 1992; Burman, Margolin, & John, 1993; Cordova, Jacobson, Gottman, Rushe, & Cox, 1993; Jacobson et al., 1994; Margolin, Burman, & John, 1989; Margolin, John, & Gleberman, 1988). In the intrapersonal domain, intimate aggression generates fear and stress in women's lives (e.g., Capaldi & Owen, 2001; Haj-Yahia, 1999). Because most studies to date tend to categorize couples as violent or nonviolent based on one time point, we have little information on the impact of past versus recent aggression on couples' communication and on wives' fear. The purpose of the present study is to examine communication behaviors and fear among couples who report no history of aggression, past aggression, or recent aggression. Another purpose of the present study is to examine the impact of persistent severe aggression on communication and fear.
Links Between Marital Aggression, Couples' Communication and Fear
A growing body of research documents links between marital aggression and compromised marital communication. Most studies find that couples experiencing marital aggression tend to be more hostile, to express more contempt and belligerence, and to engage in negative contingency patterns such as increased negative reciprocity (e.g., Burman et al., 1993). Research suggests that husbands' marital aggression relates to certain negative behaviors in husbands' communication in particular, though both husbands and wives do seem to have more negative communication in general in relationships with aggression. Overall, physically aggressive husbands tend to be more demanding, contemptuous, and belligerent during marital interaction than are their nonaggressive counterparts (Berns, Jacobson, & Gottman, 1999; Feldman & Ridley, 2000). Margolin and her colleagues found that compared with husbands in verbally aggressive and withdrawing marriages, husbands in physically aggressive marriages were more overtly negative and more defensive (Margolin et al., 1988; Margolin et al., 1989).
Although some researchers have identified deficits specific to husbands, several researchers have found that both spouses exhibit more negative communication in relationships characterized by aggression. Cordova et al. (1993) found higher levels of negative reciprocity in both spouses among domestically violent couples than in distressed nonviolent and happily married couples. Burman et al. (1993) examined reenactments of marital conflicts in couples' homes and found that physically aggressive couples reciprocated angry, contemptuous behavior more often and more persistently than did verbally aggressive, withdrawing, or non distressed couples. Jacobson et al. (1994) compared 60 maritally violent couples with 32 distressed nonviolent couples. They found that both husbands and wives in violent couples displayed more anger, and husbands in the violent couples displayed more contempt than did nonviolent husbands. Although Babcock et al. (1993) found that husbands' but not wives' communication skills related to husbands' physical violence across the whole sample, they also found that within the group of couples reporting violence, when both spouses had communication deficits, there was a likelihood of greater violence. Thus, these studies suggest that in couples with husband-to-wife physical aggression, both spouses may exhibit more negativity and hostility.
The large amount of evidence that marital aggression relates to compromised communication underscores an important area of impact of marital aggression on women's lives. Even if violent episodes occur relatively rarely from day to day, relationships involving violence may involve frequent poor communication and interpersonal negativity in couples and families (Margolin, John, Ghosh, & Gordis, 1996). This pervasive negativity may have a great impact on women's functioning even beyond the direct effect of what may be relatively infrequent violent episodes. Evidence suggests that poor marital communication, particularly around conflictual topics, may be worse for women's physical well-being than for men's. In their review of the literature, Kiecolt-Glaser and Newton (2001) conclude that marital interaction about conflict relates to health and morbidity, with some data suggesting the relationship is especially strong for women. In addition, these authors conclude that overall, women's physiologies tend to be more reactive to negativity in discussions of conflict than do men's and that the effects tend to be longer-lasting for women. Communication and conflict also relate to both spouses' emotional well-being. Uebelacker, Courtnage, and Whisman (2003) found that couples' reports of demand-withdraw and self-silencing behaviors correlated with their depression levels. Thus, marital aggression may affect women's physical and emotional well-being through its negative consequences for communication.
In addition to communication, marital aggression appears to affect women's fear. Capaldi and Owen (2001) found that being the target of domestic violence significantly correlated with women's levels of fear. Haj-Yahia (1999) examined the consequences of domestic violence among Palestinian women and found that physical aggression was a significant predictor of women's fear, anger, and psychological distress. DeMaris and Swinford (1996) examined data from the 1985 National Family Violence Survey and found that relationship violence levels related to women's reports of fearfulness about future assaults. Relatedly, Carlson, McNutt, Choi, and Rose (2002) found that anxiety and depression related to past (prior to 1 year ago) and recent (within the last year) intimate adult abuse. Even if violent episodes are not constant, one consequence of occasional aggression may be that women live in a state of chronic fear and heightened stress.
Effects of Recent versus Past Aggression
The literature now suggests that many couples who have been aggressive at one point in the relationship desist from the aggression. Many studies examining the effects of marital aggression on communication group couples based on aggression data from one time point, but we know that aggression is not perfectly stable. For example, Johnson (2003) examined national survey data in Canada and found that 70% of intact couples in which women endorsed that violence had occurred during the relationship indicated that no violence had occurred during the previous year. O'Leary et al. (1989) found that even among community couples experiencing aggression before marriage and after 1.5 years of marriage, the conditional probability of aggression over the next year (after 30 months of marriage) was only .59, indicating a 40% chance of desistance. Aldarondo (1996) examined rates of cessation of aggression over three years among community respondents from the National Family Violence Survey. He found that more than half of men who had been physically aggressive toward wives during the first or second year exhibited no aggression during the following year, and more than a third who had been aggressive at year 1 were not aggressive for the following two years. In their longitudinal study of the trajectories of marital aggression, Feld and Straus (1990) found relatively high rates of desistance among physically aggressive husbands such that in the second year of the study, one third of the most frequently violent husbands desisted completely during year 2, and another 10% desisted during year 3. These authors argue that even a year of desistance is significant, suggesting that severe violence being initiated after a year of no violence is low in probability.
Desistance may covary with improvements in marital functioning more broadly. Quigley and Leonard (1996) examined marital functioning and husbands' desistance from aggression in the second and third years of marriage based on whether husbands had been aggressive in the first year. These researchers found that the desistance rate was 23.9% over the next 2 years, with more severe aggression predicting lower desistance rates. Desistance covaried with improvements in individual and marital functioning, including lower stress, lower dissatisfaction with the partner, and higher intimacy and marital satisfaction. These results suggest that improvements in relationship functioning may accompany desistance. Given that these studies suggest one-year desistance rates of up to 50% and two-year desistance rates of 24-33%, failing to take into account the different trajectories of marital aggression may obscure longitudinal differences in how couples function. Another point for consideration is that desistance may have a different consequence for relationship functioning based on the severity of aggression that has occurred. Severe aggression, as opposed to more minor forms of aggression, may create more lasting negative consequences. As Feld and Straus (1990) note, aggression may end, but the threat of violence may continue to permeate the relationship.
We need more information to understand what desistance means for a couple's communication. Jacobson et al. (1996) examined couples with severe aggression at time 1 and then again 2 years later. At follow up, they found that most of the men (86%) reduced the aggression to only one mild incident during the previous year. Even in the couples in which wives reported that husbands had desisted from severe violence at 2 year follow up, 13 of 14 of these couples still reported some type of aggression, with only 1 husband desisting altogether from violence. Comparing those who decreased domestic violence with those who did not decrease domestic violence, the authors found higher levels of husband domineering, husband global negative affect, and lower levels of husband neutral at both time points among the nondecreasers. This study dealt only with couples who had experienced severe aggression. We do not know how they compare to couples without aggression in the relationship.
Questions that remain unclear include how past versus more recent aggression relates to communication behavior, and how couples with past versus more recent aggression compare with couples who have no history of husbands' aggression. Once violence occurs, violence per se may no longer be necessary to intimidate and control the wife because other behaviors in the context of the violent history are intimidating enough (Feld...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
have been removed from this article.
Looking for additional articles?
Search our database of over 3 million articles.
Looking for more in-depth information on this industry?
Search our complete database of Industry & Market reports by text, subject, publication
name or publication date.
About Goliath
Whether you're looking for sales prospects, competitive information, company
analysis or best practices in managing your organization,
Goliath can help you meet your business needs.
Our extensive business information databases empower business
professionals with both the breadth and depth of credible,
authoritative information they need to support their business
goals. Whether it be strategic planning, sales prospecting,
company research or defining management best practices -
Goliath is your leading source for accurate information.
|
