It is estimated that physical violence may occur in one half of all American marriages, with often devastating consequences, including murder, suicide, psychological difficulties, and physical injuries. Despite the magnitude of this health problem little empirical data have been gathered on the characteristics of abusive relationships or on the development of spouse abuse. In order to obtain such information, 240 couples will be assessed, half recruited from a random sample of the community and the other half form a hospital providing therapy. Equal numbers of couples will be selected for each of three groups: abusive couples; nonabusive but maritally distressed couples and nonabusive, nondistressed couples. In addition to these three cells, we will also be examining couples who are abusive but report nondistressed relationships. Although we are skeptical about the existence of such couples, recent studies have argued that such couples do exist. In order to understand how abusive couples might nevertheless define their relationships as happy ones, we are going to identify such couples and study them. Thus, all in all we have a 2x2 design, defined by the factors of abuse status (abusive or nonabusive) and marital satisfaction level (currently distressed or nondistressed). The major goal of the study is to examine cognitive, physiological, and interaction al variables as possible antecedents and consequences of spouse abuse. Among these variables, primary interest will be focused on: Communication during a marital interaction task; casual attributions offered by victims for their partner's abusive behavior and by perpetrators for their own abusive behavior; and autonomic nervous system arousal (as well as self-reported affective responding) of subjects during marital interactions. Violent couples will be compared to nonviolent couples on a number of dimensions. The dimensions will also be used to predict the later occurrence of abuse. Finally, changes in the pattern (e.g., self-esteem, attitudes towards women, violence in family of origin, depression, psychopathology) will be examined longitudinally, to tease out the temporal relationship between these variables and marital violence.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH043101-04
Application #
3382548
Study Section
Criminal and Violent Behavior Research Review Committee (CVR)
Project Start
1989-04-01
Project End
1993-03-31
Budget Start
1992-04-01
Budget End
1993-03-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
1992
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Washington
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
135646524
City
Seattle
State
WA
Country
United States
Zip Code
98195
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Berns, S B; Jacobson, N S; Gottman, J M (1999) Demand/withdraw interaction patterns between different types of batterers and their spouses. J Marital Fam Ther 25:337-47
Berns, S B; Jacobson, N S; Gottman, J M (1999) Demand-withdraw interaction in couples with a violent husband. J Consult Clin Psychol 67:666-74
Jacobson, N S; Gottman, J M; Waltz, J et al. (1994) Affect, verbal content, and psychophysiology in the arguments of couples with a violent husband. J Consult Clin Psychol 62:982-8
Babcock, J C; Waltz, J; Jacobson, N S et al. (1993) Power and violence: the relation between communication patterns, power discrepancies, and domestic violence. J Consult Clin Psychol 61:40-50
Jacobson, N S; Addis, M E (1993) Research on couples and couple therapy: what do we know? Where are we going? J Consult Clin Psychol 61:85-93
Waltz, J; Addis, M E; Koerner, K et al. (1993) Testing the integrity of a psychotherapy protocol: assessment of adherence and competence. J Consult Clin Psychol 61:620-30
Cordova, J V; Jacobson, N S; Gottman, J M et al. (1993) Negative reciprocity and communication in couples with a violent husband. J Abnorm Psychol 102:559-64
Holtzworth-Munroe, A; Waltz, J; Jacobson, N S et al. (1992) Recruiting nonviolent men as control subjects for research on marital violence: how easily can it be done? Violence Vict 7:79-88
Jacobson, N S (1991) Behavioral versus insight-oriented marital therapy: labels can be misleading. J Consult Clin Psychol 59:142-5;discussion 146-7