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Emotional Abuse and Controlling Behaviors in Heterosexual Relationships: The Role of Employment and Alcohol Use for Women and Their Partners
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The purpose of this study is to examine the role of economic resources, status compatibility, and alcohol consumption on forms of nonphysical abuse, such as controlling and emotional abuse. Specifically, we focus on the connections between women's employment, the employment of their partners, alcohol use, and women's risk of abuse in intimate relationships. We hypothesize that women in intimate relationships with men will experience more emotional abuse to the extent that they are economically vulnerable. Moreover, abuse should increase if their employment status, in relation to that of their partner, challenges the man's marital power. Moreover, alcohol use by women and/or their partners is also predicted to be associated with emotional abuse. We find some support for assertions that socioeconomic deprivation, as well as challenges to men's masculinity, is associated with emotionally abusive male partners. However, the prevalence and amount of alcohol use by the male partner stands out as the most consistent predictor of emotional abuse in heterosexual relationships.
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... It is worthy of note that social and structural factors can be predictors of female IPV; Follingstad (1990), for example, points out that women may use psychological abuse to gain a sense of control in relationships where they are financially dependent on their partners. Zavala and Spohn (2010) note the relevance of poverty and poor employment as exacerbations of the risk of IPV for both men and women. As women tend to experience greater poverty and be more reliant on their male partners for financial stability, we might conclude that patriarchal societies create structural risk factors for the abuse of men by women and of women by men. ...
... Hazardous drinking can increase following exposure to trauma (Kachadourian et al., 2014), although not everyone who experiences trauma or PTSD symptoms misuses alcohol. For individuals who engage in risky drinking, this may elevate rates of psychological distress, increase the use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, or increase vulnerability to emotional abuse that, in turn, may negatively impact intimacy and relationship functioning (Homish et al., 2006;Leone et al., 2022;Zavala & Spohn, 2010). ...
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and hazardous drinking have been linked to lower relationship satisfaction; however, few studies have evaluated these associations over time in a college sample. The current study aimed to examine within-person and between-person longitudinal main and interactive effects of self-reported PTSD symptoms and hazardous drinking on relationship satisfaction in a college sample. We further examined whether individual PTSD symptom clusters (i.e., re-experiencing, avoidance, hyperarousal, and emotional numbing) uniquely predicted relationship satisfaction. College students in current dating relationships (N = 307; 71% cisgender women) completed online self-report measures assessing relationship satisfaction, PTSD symptoms, and hazardous alcohol use on four occasions across 12 months. Multilevel models revealed that students with more severe PTSD symptoms than average had lower relationship satisfaction (i.e., at the between-person level). Additionally, higher hazardous drinking at the between-person and within-person levels was associated with lower relationship satisfaction. When examining specific PTSD symptom clusters, results indicated only emotional numbing symptoms were negatively associated with relationship satisfaction at the between-person and within-person levels after controlling for other PTSD symptom clusters. Collectively, these results underscore the impact of within- and between-person individual differences in PTSD symptoms and hazardous drinking on romantic relationships in college student populations.
... For example, those who are younger, have more children, live in rural locations, have fewer years of schooling, or who are unemployed are more likely to experience DV during their lifetime (Sokoloff and Dupont, 2005), and may be less likely to seek help for DV (Leonardsson and San, 2017). Furthermore, migration has been identified as a key risk factor for DV (Satyen et al., 2018;UNODC, 2018;Satyen, 2021), through practical and cultural barriers to accessing help and support (Raj and Silverman, 2002;Colucci et al., 2013), as well as so-called 'backlash' factors, whereby men increase their use of violence and control following migration to more egalitarian locations, in response to the threatened loss of status and authority (Dasgupta and Warrier, 1996;Zavala and Spohn, 2010). In examining DV, it is therefore important to acknowledge the compounding effects of such factors, while underscoring the central role of patriarchy (Gundappa and Rathod, 2012). ...
Domestic violence (DV) is a serious and preventable human rights issue that disproportionately affects certain groups of people, including Indian women. Feminist theory suggests that patriarchal ideologies produce an entitlement in male perpetrators of DV; however, this has not been examined in the context of women from the Indian subcontinent. This study examined Indian women’s experiences of abuse (physical, sexual, and psychological) and controlling behavior across 31 countries by examining the relationship between the patriarchal beliefs held by the women’s partners and the women’s experience of DV. This study uses an intersectional feminist framework to examine the variables. Data from an online questionnaire was collected from 825 Indian women aged between 18 and 77 years (M = 35.64, SD = 8.71) living in 31 countries across Asia (37.1%), Europe (18.3%), Oceania (23.8%), the Americas (16.1%) and Africa (3.2%) and analyzed using a hierarchical linear regression. A majority of participants (72.5%) had experienced at least one form of abuse during their relationship, and over a third (35.1%) had experienced controlling behavior. In support of the central hypotheses, after controlling for potential confounders, women whose partners showed greater endorsement of patriarchal beliefs were less likely to have access to freedom during their relationship (ß = −0.38, p < 0.001) and were more likely to have been abused by their partner or a member of his family (ß = 0.34, p < 0.001). The findings of this study highlight the need to engage with men in Indian communities through culturally-tailored intervention strategies designed to challenge the patriarchal ideologies that propagate, justify, and excuse DV.
... Socioeconomic status (SES) was found to be a contributor to IPV perpetration and victimization. Household income in adulthood was an important factor in IPV perpetration and victimization among all racial groups and genders (Edwards et al., 2014;Zavala & Spohn, 2010). Cunradi et al. (2002) note that individuals from lower SES may more commonly support physical aggression during marital arguments, have higher rates of depression, utilize less valuable coping mechanisms, have greater exposure to childhood violence, and have experience with alcohol-related issues. ...
The study examined the effect of community environments, such as community cohesion, community safety, and community poverty, in childhood on the likelihood of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) perpetration and victimization in young adulthood. The study used the cross-sectional survey data of 2,082 college students collected in 2016–2017 from six universities in the U.S. and the data for the childhood community environment from the 2007–2011 American Community Survey. Hierarchical regressions were performed separately by gender to 1) assess the effects of community factors in addition to individual factors for IPV perpetration and victimization, and to 2) identify the interaction effect of community cohesion with community poverty on IPV perpetration and victimization. Community factors of community cohesion and community poverty were significantly correlated to different types of IPV. For IPV perpetration, only community cohesion was significant for, the interaction effect between community cohesion and poverty showed that higher community cohesion lowered the risk of community poverty on later IPV perpetration in both genders. For IPV victimization, only female students were affected by community poverty, whereas none of the community factors had an impact on male students. The findings imply the significance of early interventions and policies strengthening the community environment, especially community cohesion, for preventing IPV. The findings also suggest that assessing risk and protective factors on IPV in multiple contexts during childhood is important to develop effective programs preventing IPV.
... Our best models showed little association between drought and emotional, physical, and sexual violence on any continent, yet we found associations between drought and increases in controlling behaviors in LAC and Asia. The effect of drought on controlling behaviors is supported by literature that finds that controlling behaviors are associated with precarious economic situations and unemployment [83]. However, given that controlling behaviors are a risk factor for other forms of violence in other countries [84,85], it is surprising that drought can increase the risk of controlling behaviors without also affecting the risk of other forms of violence. ...
Droughts are associated with several societal ills, especially in developing economies that rely on rainfed agriculture. Recently, researchers have begun to examine the effect of droughts on the risk of Intimate-Partner Violence (IPV), but so far this work has led to inconclusive results. For example, two large recent studies analyzed comparable data from multiple sub-Saharan African countries and drew opposite conclusions. We attempt to resolve this apparent paradox by replicating previous analyses with the largest data set yet assembled to study drought and IPV. Integrating the methods of previous studies and taking particular care to control for spatial autocorrelation, we find little association between drought and most forms of IPV, although we do find evidence of associations between drought and women’s partners exhibiting controlling behaviors. Moreover, we do not find significant heterogeneous effects based on wealth, employment, household drinking water sources, or urban-rural locality.
... For example, Vieraitis and Williams (2002), in an analysis of 158 U.S. cities, noted that the relative status of women (ratio of women to men) in areas of full-time employment and executive and managerial positions was related to elevated female homicide victimization rates (see also Della Giustina, 2010). Within a spousal relationship, Zavala and Spohn (2010) likewise reported that a wife who is the sole breadwinner is more likely to experience emotional abuse by her male partner than one whose husband is also employed. The unemployed male partner is likely to believe that his masculinity is challenged by his employed female partner as he fails to meet the traditional male gender role of breadwinner. ...
This study is the first cross-national work to examine the impact of gender equality on both female homicide and rape victimization. The data set from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) was analyzed for 70 countries. Several gender equality measures were significantly and positively related to rape victimization, but were mostly not significant to female homicide. Findings for rape victimization were consistent with the backlash hypothesis, but such findings may be related to the limitations of police rape rates, such as different legal definitions and police-reporting behaviors across countries.
Dit rapport presenteert de bevindingen van de literatuurstudie geeft antwoord op de vragen: - Hebben vrouwen die financieel afhankelijk zijn van hun partner meer kans om partnergeweld mee te maken? En, omgekeerd, hebben vrouwen die financieel onafhankelijk zijn van hun partner minder kans om slachtoffer te worden van partnergeweld? - Hebben vrouwen die financieel afhankelijk zijn van hun partner minder kans om de gewelddadige relatie te doorbreken? En, omgekeerd, hebben vrouwen die financieel onafhankelijk zijn van hun partner meer kans om zich aan het geweld te onttrekken door de relatie te verbreken?
Although drawing an equivalence between sexual and non-sexual violence has been critical to the feminist analysis of rape, the distinction between the two has not been the subject of much empirical research. Using the longitudinal component of the National Comorbidity Survey this study compares the long-term associations of sexual and non-sexual physical violence with psychological distress. In addition, it explores associations of sexual and physical violence with perceptions of self and others. The results reveal similarities and differences between the two types of violence. For psychological distress, the associations are statistically equivalent—both are positively associated with distress. But only sexual violence is associated with self-esteem, self-criticism, and attachment style. Survivors of sexual violence report much lower self-esteem and much more self-criticism. They are also much less likely to report a secure attachment style and, instead, report more interpersonal avoidance and anxiety. The association between sexual violence and perceptions of self and others explains much of the association between sexual violence and psychological distress, and differences in the associations are not driven by other measured characteristics of violence.
Narratives of dancers and managerial individuals working in strip clubs in Ontario, Canada, reveal that even within the sex industry the dominant image of the pimp—as an exploitative, racialized, underclass villain—informs the perception of certain men, characteristics, and relationships. To make sense of this phenomenon, this article applies Baudrillard’s concept of simulacrum to examine the circulation of the pimp trope amongst strip club workers. In so doing it argues the pimp stereotype deviantizes dancers’ relationships, and black men, as the same time as its narrow focus diverts attention away from various personal and professional challenges dancers may face.
Because employment plays a central role in shaping gender identities and gender relations, it has important implications for understanding women's risks of spousal violence. This article analyzes the relationship between participation in the labor force and the risk of spousal violence against women by treating employment as a symbolic, rather than simply socioeconomic resource. We begin with a latent class analysis that identifies qualitatively distinct patterns of violence against wives. We then examine direct and conditional effects of employment on women's risks of spousal violence. Our results show that the effect of a woman's employment on her risk of spousal violence is conditioned by the employment status of her partner. To some extent, these effects reflect efforts by men to coercively control their female partners.
For nearly two decades the wage gap between men and women has remained virtually unchanged. Women continue to earn, on average, 80 cents for every dollar that men earn. Yet despite persistent discrimination in wages, studies are also beginning to show that a growing number of women are out-earning their husbands. Nationwide, nearly one-third of working women are the chief breadwinners in their families. The trend is particularly pronounced among the demographic of highly educated women. Does this increase in earnings, however, equate to a shift in power dynamics between husbands and wives? In Earning More and Getting Less, sociologist Veronica Jaris Tichenor shows how, historically, men have derived a great deal of power over financial and household decisions by bringing home all (or most) of the family's income. Yet, financial superiority has not been a similar source of power for women. Tichenor demonstrates how wives, instead of using their substantial incomes to negotiate more egalitarian relationships, enable their husbands to perpetuate male dominance within the family. Weaving personal accounts, in-depth interviews, and compelling narrative, this important study reveals disturbing evidence that the conventional power relations defined by gender are powerful enough to undermine hierarchies defined by money. Earning More and Getting Less is essential reading in sociology, psychology, and family and gender studies.
What techniques can social scientists use when an outcome variable for a sample is not representative of the population for whom they would like to generalize the results? This book provides an introduction to regression models for such data including censored, sample-selected and truncated data.
This study examines variance in the sex ratio of intimate killing (SROK) across U.S. cities. The research primarily focuses on the influence that varying degrees of gendered economic equality have on the SROK. Also, we examine this relationship in economic and regional/ cultural contexts. The results of OLS regression analyses reveal a significant negative influence of female economic equality (as measured by the sex ratios of employment) on the SROK. In addition, we find that this influence is contingent on general economic well-being and more traditional cultural orientations to gender roles. Overall, the findings clearly indicate that variation in the SROK is related to the structural features of communities. Theoretical implications are discussed and directions for future research suggested.
We used national data from two samples reflecting different marriage cohorts to examine long-term changes in gender relations
within marriage, long-term changes in marital quality, and the association between the two. The first marriage cohort consisted
of individuals married between 1964 and 1980 (N = 1,119) and interviewed in 1980, whereas the second marriage cohort consisted of individuals married between 1981 and 1997
(N = 312) and interviewed in 1997. Compared with the earlier cohort, the more recent cohort reported larger contributions to
household income among wives, more employment of wives with preschool-age children, less traditional gender-role attitudes,
a greater share of housework on the part of husbands, less husband influence in marriage, and greater wife influence in marriage.
Members of the more recent marriage cohort also reported significantly more marital discord. This difference in discord was
explained partly by greater work-family conflict in the more recent cohort. Other changes in gender relations, however, were
not related to increases in marital discord.