Early antecedents of spouse abuse

• Published in: Aggressive behavior Vol. 23; no. 4; pp. 239 - 243
• Main Authors: von der Pahlen, Bettina, Öst, Björn, Lindfors, Bodil, Lindman, Ralf
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 1997; Wiley-Liss
• Subjects: Adult; alcohol abuse; Biological and medical sciences; Medical sciences; parental role models; physical aggression; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; spouse abuse; verbal aggression; Victimology; Human; Social interaction; Spouse; Violence; Alcoholism; Family environment; Social role; Sexual abuse; Physical injury; Victimology; Antecedent; Aggressiveness
• ISSN: 0096-140X; 1098-2337
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1098-2337(1997)23:4<239::AID-AB2>3.0.CO;2-F

Males taken into police custody for reported spouse abuse (n = 19) and a matched control group (n = 19) were asked to describe the drinking habits of their parents and the extent of intra‐family violence witnessed by them as children. The retrospective data were compared to the participant's own present alcohol use and aggressiveness (CTS). Excessive paternal drinking and intra‐family violence were recalled significantly more often by the spouse abusers than by the controls. A latent structure model suggested that the accumulated violence history was less well predicted by either paternal violence or present aggressiveness than by the direct and indirect effects related to drinking. Context‐specific social learning could explain why the parental drunken violence behavior pattern witnessed by the child was repeated by the adult spouse abuser. Aggr. Behav. 23:239–243, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.