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The cessation of marital violence
Abstract
Research on the cessation of violence is important in light of the dramatic increase in public and scientific interest on family violence. Although the marital violence literature more than tripled during the eighties, much of the work has focused solely on the correlates and determinants of marital violence, ignoring the issue of how couples eliminate violence from their relationships. This is an exploratory study of the cessation of men's use of violence against their female partners. Longitudinal survey data were used to evaluate cessation rates, the relationship between demographic characteristics and risk factors for wife abuse and cessation, and the help seeking behavior of partners who ceased the violence. In depth interviews with two couples who had ceased the use of violence were used to elucidate the characteristics of the cessation process. It was found that contextual factors such as financial hardship, increased number of children at home, increased levels of marital conflict, and inadequate conflict resolution skills were negatively related to the cessation of violence. On the other hand, cessation was associated with immersion into a social network that supports nonviolence, development of alternative ways to resolve conflict, and the partners' commitment to the relationship.
Subject Area
Clinical psychology|Social psychology|Criminology
Recommended Citation
Aldarondo-Antonini, Etiony, "The cessation of marital violence" (1992). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9233023.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9233023