This is an exploratory study that examined verbal aggression in romantic relationships among unmarried Black and White women and men as a function of gender and race. We employed an ecological approach to examine the receipt of verbal aggression separately for men and women at the levels of individual, relationship, and community. We also explored whether gender-specific correlates of verbal aggression interacted with race. Analyses were based on a sample of 212 women and 133 men in non-marital romantic relationships recruited from 21 U.S. cities for a larger study. Linear mixed-effects models revealed that factors related to experiencing verbal aggression differed substantially for unmarried women and men in romantic relationships. Interesting racial differences also emerged distinctly for women and men.
BensonM. L.WooldredgeJ.ThistlethwaiteA. B.FoxG. L. (2004). The correlation between race and domestic violence is confounded with community context. Social Problems, 51(3), 326–342.
2.
BronfenbrennerU. (1986). Ecology of the family as a context for human development: Research perspectives. Developmental Psychology, 22(6), 723–742.
3.
BrownS.BoothA. (1996). Cohabitation and marriage: A comparison of relationship quality. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 58(3), 668–678.
4.
BrowningC. R. (2002). The span of collective efficacy: Extending social disorganization theory to partner violence. Journal of Marriage and Family, 64, 833–850.
5.
BrownridgeD. A.HalliS. S. (2002). Understanding male partner violence against cohabiting and married women: An empirical investigation with a synthesized model. Journal of Family Violence, 17(4), 341–361.
6.
BumpassL. L.SweetJ. A. (1987-88). The National Survey of Families and Households.
7.
CarlsonB. E. (1984). Causes and maintenance of domestic violence: An ecological analysis. Social Service Review, 58(4), 569–587.
8.
CastA. (2003). Power and the ability to define the situation. Social Psychology Quarterly,66(3), 185–201.
9.
CrouterA. C.Perry-JenkinsM.HustonT. L.CrawfordD. W. (1989). The influenceof work-induced psychological states on behavior at home. Basic and Applied Social Psychology10(3)273–292
10.
CurtisK. T.EllisonC. G. (2002Religious heterogamy and marital conflict: Findings from the national survey of families and householdsJournal of Family Issues, 23(4), 551–576.
11.
DahlbergL. L.KrugE. G. (2002). Violence: A global public health problem. In KrugE.DahlbergL. L.MercyJ. A.ZwiA. B.LozanoR. (Eds.), World report on violence and health. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization.
12.
DobashR. E.DobashR. (1979). Violence against wives: A case against the patriarchy. New York: The Free Press.
13.
DuttonM. A.KaltmanS.GoodmanL. A.WeinfurtK.VankosN. (2005). Patterns of intimate partner violence: Correlates and outcomes. Violence and Victims, 20(5). 483–497.
14.
EdwardsL. J.OrelienJ. G. (2008). Fixed-effect variable selection in linear mixed models using R2 statistics. Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, 52(4), 1896 – 1907.
15.
EricksonR. (2005). Why emotion work matters: Sex, gender, and the division of household labor. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67, 337–351.
16.
FlakeD. F. (2005). Individual, family, and community risk markers for domestic violencein Peru. Violence Against Women, 11(3), 353–373.
17.
Gibson-DavisC. M.MagnusonK.GennetianL. A.DuncanG. J. (2005). Employment and domestic abuse among low income women. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 67(5), 1149–1168.
18.
GoldscheiderC.GoldschedierF. K. (1988). Ethnicity, religiosity and leaving home: The structural and cultural bases of traditional family values. Sociological Forum, 3(4), 525–547. Retrieved on July 22, 2009 from http://www.jstor.org/stable/684542.
19.
GoodeW. J. (1971). Force and violence in family. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 33, 624–636.
20.
HeatonT. B. (2002). Factors contributing to increasing marital stability in the United States. Journal of Family Issues, 23, 392–409.
21.
HeatonT. B.PrattE. L. (1990). The effects of religious homogamy on marital satisfaction and stability. Journal of Family Issues, 11(2), 191–207.
22.
HeiseL. L. (1998). Violence against women: An integrated, ecological framework. Violence Against Women, 4(3), 262–290.
23.
HochschildA. R. (1989). The second shift: Working parents and the revolution at home. New York: Viking.
24.
JacksonJ. S.TuckerM. B.GurinG. (1987). National survey of Black Americans, 1979-80. Ann Arbor, MI- Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research.
25.
KarisT. A. (2003). How race matters and does not matter for white women in relationships with black men. Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy, 2, 23–40.
26.
KillianK. D. (2001). Reconstituting racial histories and identities: The narratives of interracial couples. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 27, 27–42.
27.
KornE. L.GraubardB. I. (1999). Analysis of health surveys. New York, NY: Wiley.
28.
KrauseN. (1996). Welfare participation and self-esteem in later life. The Gerontologist, 36, 665–673.
29.
KurdekL. (2008). Differences between partners from Black and White heterosexual dating couples in a path model of relationship commitment. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 25, 51–71.
30.
LevinJ. S.TaylorR. J.ChattersL. M. (1995). A multidimensional measure of religious involvement for Blacks. The Sociological Quarterly, 36(1), 157–173.
31.
LewisS. F.FremouwW. (2001). Dating violence: A critical review of the literature. Clinical Psychology Review, 21(1), 105–127.
32.
LichterD. T.McLaughlinD. K.KephartG.LandryD. J. (1992). Race and theretreat from marriage: A shortage of marriageable men?American SociologicalReview, 57(6), 781–799.
33.
McCloskeyL. (1996). Socioeconomic and coercive power within the family. Gender and Society, 10, 449–463.
34.
NeffJ. A. (2006). Exploring the dimensionality of “religiosity” and “spirituality” in the Fetzer multidimensional measure. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 45(3),449–459.
35.
NockS. L. (1995). A comparison of marriages and cohabiting relationships. Journal of Family Issues, 16(1), 53–76.
36.
O’KeefeM.TreisterL. (1998). Victims of dating violence among high school students: Are the predictors different for males and females?Violence Against Women, 4(2), 195–223.
37.
PearlinL.JohnsonJ. S. (1977). Marital status, life strains, and depression. American Sociological Review, 42, 704–715.
38.
RaghavanC.MennerichA.SextonE.JamesS. E. (2006). Community violence and its direct, indirect, and mediating effects on intimate partner violence. Violence against Women, 12(12), 1132–1149.
39.
RosenbergM. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton.
40.
RossC. E.MirowskyJ.HaberJ. (1983). Marriage patterns and depression. American Sociological Review, 48, 809–823.
41.
RussellD.PeplauL. A.CutronaC. E. (1980). The revised UCLA Loneliness scale: Concurrent & discriminant validity evidence. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 39, 472–480.
42.
SchumacherJ. A.LeonardK. E. (2005). Husbands' and wives' marital adjustment, verbal aggression, and physical aggression as longitudinal predictors of physical aggression in early marriage. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73(1), 28–37.
43.
SherinK.M.SinacoreJ.M.LiX.Q.ZitterR.E.ShakilA. (1998). HITS: A short domestic violence screening tool for use in a family practice setting. Family Medicine, 30(7), 508–12.
44.
SimmonsT.O’ConnellM. (2003). Married-couple and unmarried-couple households 2000: Census 2000 special reports. Retrieved on January 14, 2008 fromwww.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/censr-5.pdf.
45.
SmockP. J.ManningW. D.PorterM. (2005). “Everything's there except money”: How money shapes decisions to marry among cohabitors. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67(3), 680–696.
46.
SouthS. T.SpitzeG. (1994). Housework in marital and nonmarital households. American Sociological Review, 59, 327–347.
47.
StetsJ. E. (1991). Cohabiting and marital aggression: The role of social isolation. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 53, 669–680.
48.
StetsJ. E. (1990). Verbal and physical aggression in marriage. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52, 501–514.
49.
StetsJ. E.StrausM. A. (1989). The marriage license as a hitting license: A comparison of assaults in dating, cohabiting, and married couples. Journal of Family Violence, 41(2), 161–180.
50.
StrausM. A.SweetS. (1992). Verbal/symbolic aggression in couples: Incidence rates and relationships to personal characteristics. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 54, 346–357.
51.
TaylorR. J.MattisJ.ChattersL. M. (1999). Subjective religiosity among Blacks: A synthesis of findings from five national samples. Journal of Black Psychology, 25(4), 524–543.
52.
TolmanR. M.RafaelJ. (2000). A review of research on welfare and domestic violence. Journal of Social Issues, 56(4), 655–681.
53.
TolmanR. M.RosenD. (2001). Domestic violence in the lives of women receiving welfare: Mental health, substance dependence, and economic well-being. Violence Against Women, 7(2), 141–158.
54.
TurnerR. J. (1992). Measuring social support: Issues of concept and method. In VeielH. O. F.BaumannU. (Eds.), The meaning and measurement of social support. New York: Hemisphere.
55.
TzengM. (1992). The effects of socioeconomic heterogamy and changes on marital dissolution for first marriages. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 54(3), 609–619.
56.
Van WykJ. A.BensonM. L.FoxG. L.DeMarisA. (2003). Detangling individual-, partner-, and community-level correlates of partner violence. Crime & Delinquency, 49(3), 412–438.
57.
VandelloJ. A. (2007). Sex ratios and homicide across the U.S. International Journal of Psychology Research, 1(1), 59–80.
58.
VissingY. M.StrausM. A.GellesR. J.HarropJ. W. (1990). Verbal aggression by parents and psycho-social problems of children. Child Abuse & Neglect, 14, 233–238.
59.
WaiteL. (1999). The negative effects of cohabitation. The Responsive Community, 10, 31– 38.
60.
YlloK.StrausM. A. (1981). Interpersonal violence among married and cohabiting couples. Family Relations, 30, 339–347.
