Marital Power,Conflict,Norm Consensus,and Marital Violence in a Nationally Representative Sample of Korean Couples

This study replicates Coleman and Straus’s 1990 U.S. research, analyzing the relationships between marital power, conflict, norm consensus, and domestic violence in a national random sample of the population of South Korea. There were about 1,500 participants. Using the Conflict Tactics Scale to measure domestic violence between husbands and wives, the study found that, as in the United States, all three variables are correlated with domestic violence. Marital power and conflict in particular were strongly correlated with violence. Because a male dominant marital power structure was highly correlated with husband-to-wife violence, the study concludes that all possible efforts must be made to encourage and induce the formation of egalitarian marital organization, which is negatively correlated with violence.