Recruiting Nonviolent Men as Control Subjects for Research on Marital Violence: How Easily Can It Be Done?

• Published in: Violence and victims Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 79 - 88
• Main Authors: Holtzworth-Munroe, Amy, Waltz, Jennifer, Jacobson, Neil S., Monaco, Valerie, Fehrenbach, Peter A., Gottman, John M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Springer Publishing Company 01.04.1992; Springer
• Subjects: Adult; Behavioral Sciences; Biological and medical sciences; Counseling; Cross-Sectional Studies; Empirical Methods; Experiments; Humans; Incidence; Male; Marital Relations; Marital Therapy; Marriage and Family Counselling; Medical sciences; Methodology. Experimentation; Personality Assessment; Policy, Social Justice, and Human Rights; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Recruitment; Research Design; Research Subjects; Social and Personality Psychology; Social Work; Spouse Abuse; Spouse Abuse - epidemiology; Spouse Abuse - psychology; Techniques and methods; United States - epidemiology; Violence; United States; Human; Measurement; Marital relation; Validity; Methodology; Social interaction; Violence; Scientific research; Critical study; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0886-6708; 1945-7073
• DOI: 10.1891/0886-6708.7.1.79

Data regarding the prevalence of violence among subjects recruited for nonviolent control groups in five studies are presented. These studies examined subjects recruited using a variety of methods, including couples seeking marital therapy and couples recruited from newspaper advertisements. Across the studies, it appears that up to onethird of maritally nondistressed couples and one-half of maritally distressed couples report that husband violence has occurred in their relationship. The implications of these data for the recruitment of control groups in future studies of marital violence are discussed, and questions regarding the ease of recruiting nonviolent couples for control groups are raised.