The overall purpose of this research is to assess the effectiveness of gender specific and couple treatments for men and women in abusive relationships. Reduction of anger and physical aggression is of primary interest but many other factors associated with physical abuse are also important. More specifically, psychological aggression, communication problems, marital satisfaction, and personality problems (antisocial personality and borderline personality disorder) will be assessed as predictors of treatment outcome and relapse. Gender-specific treatments for both men and women and conjoint therapy will be compared to a treatment on demand wait-list control group. The treatment on demand subjects will be randomly assigned to either one of the two main therapy conditions at the end of the fourteen-week wait period. Follow-up evaluations will be conducted at one and two year post treatment. Process analyses will examine the types of therapeutic changes that may be unique to each therapy.
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