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Partner Abuse Worldwide

UnHope20

June 23, 2021

9 upvotes

/r/Male_Studies

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Post Information

Title	Partner Abuse Worldwide
Author	UnHope20
Upvotes	9
Comments	8
Date	June 23, 2021 12:55 AM UTC (5 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/Male_Studies
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/Male_Studies/comments/o61ttx/partner_abuse_worldwide/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/Male_Studies/partner-abuse-worldwide.1216301 https://theredarchive.com/post/1216301

Comments

[–]UnHope20[S] 2 points3 points4 points 5 years ago (7 children) | Copy Link

Research on partner abuse has lagged in much of the world where attention has been on other problems (such as famine and war) and other crimes against women (e.g., honor killings, genital mutilation).

We conducted a sweeping review of scholarly articles published in peer-reviewed journals and by government agencies outside of the United States and English-speaking developed nations that provided quantitative data on physical, psychological, and sexual abuse of intimate partners as well as consequences, risk factors, and attitudes.

One hundred sixty-two articles reporting on more than 200 studies in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Europe met the inclusion criteria from various types of samples. Most of the studies reported on female victimization only, but 73 reported on both male and female victimization.

We also conducted an analysis of data from our literature review, including 1 major cross-national study, to determine the relationship among prevalence of abuse, social factors, and women’s empowerment.

Results indicate that partner abuse is a widespread problem around the world, with multiple causes.

Overall prevalence of abuse is higher in Third World countries compared to the United States, and rates for physical and psychological abuse are comparable across gender in most countries when all types of samples are considered.

No significant association was found between rates of partner violence (PV) and a nation’s level of human development.

However, a significant relationship was found between a nation’s level of gender empowerment and rates of PV by both males and females but only for university dating samples from the International Dating Violence Study (IDVS).

In addition, an analysis of the IDVS indicates that efforts by 1 partner to dominate the other are positively correlated with physical abuse perpetration for women, but not for men.

Among the limitations of this review was the relatively few numbers of large population studies that ask about both male and female perpetration and victimization and the consequences and context of PV.

Implications of the findings include the need for a broader conceptualization of PV as not merely a gender problem but also (and perhaps primarily) a human problem.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point2 points 5 years ago (6 children) | Copy Link

[–]DistrictAccurate 1 point2 points3 points 5 years ago (5 children) | Copy Link

The third part of the data analysis examined the association between dominance by one partner and PV perpetrated against a partner in dating samples using data from the IDVS (Straus, 2008) because this was the only multicountry study to consistently provide data for men and women on dominance scores. Male dominance mean scores were not found to be predictive of male PV perpetration (b* = 0.335, t[23] = 1.666, p = .110). Conversely, female dominance mean scores were found to significantly predict scores of PV perpetration by women (b* = 0.682, t[23] = 4,372, p = .001). Female dominance scores explained 47% of the variance of rates of female PV perpetration (R2 = .465, F[1, 23] = 19,112, p = .001). This indicates a large effect size (r = .68 [Cohen, 1988]) in the strength of the association between female dominance mean scores and rates of female-perpetrated physical aggression.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points3 points 5 years ago (4 children) | Copy Link

[–]UnHope20[S] 1 point2 points3 points 5 years ago* (3 children) | Copy Link

Hi great question. So the psychological construct of dominance in these studies is based on the popular belief that males who engage in domestic violence (DV) against their female partners do so in order to dominate them (Aka coercive control).

This idea dates back to at least the early 70s assertion by some researchers that domestic violence is fundamentally motivated by a man's need to control women and more broadly an attempt to maintain 'The Paxhriarchi' through the use of force and intimidation. The dominance hypothesis of DV was generally what was considered the most damning evidence of pervasive female oppression as opposed to employment, housing or education discrimination which were (rightfully) fought for as a means of ending DV.

There are entire libraries on this subject and I won't bore you with any more history lessons.

Basically the 'dominance' referred to in these studies are being measured via a commonly usedLikert scale type questionnaire with fairly decent construct validity for the purpose of these types of studies.

Here is a usurp from one of the studies whose data were analyzed for the current study:

Measure of dominance Dominance by the partner who completed the questionnaire was measured by the Dominance scale of the Personal and Relationships Profile (Straus, Hamby, Boney-McCoy, & Sugarman, 1999; Straus & Mouradian, 1999). This scale is a nine item short form of the Dominance scale developed by Hamby (1996).

Examples of the items are “I generally have the final say when my partner and I disagree” and “My partner needs to remember that I am in charge”.

The response categories are 1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Agree, and 4 = Strongly Agree. The scale score is the mean of the nine items. The theoretical range of scores is from 1 to 4. The actual range for this sample was 1 to 3.96 (mean = 1.95, SD = 0.39).

So in this case the operational definition of dominance in this study is the score generated from the subject on this questionnaire.

There are other measures as well. Ironically this particular instrument was/is particularly popular with the crowd who have been pushing the dominance hypothesis of DV etiology. The quote below was grabbed from the same study as the one above. It gives a very nice concise description of how 'dominance has typically been conceptualized in this type of research:

Conceptualization and measurement of dominance

This study used the conceptualization of dominance based on the feminist literature, and the parallel measure of dominance, developed by Hamby (Hamby, 1996).

This identifies three different forms or modalities of dominance. Each represents a departure from an equalitarian relationship.

Authority is a relationship in which one partner holds a majority of decision-making power and is “in charge”.

Restrictiveness departs from an egalitarian relationship because one partner assumes the right to intrude upon the other's behavior, even when that behavior does not directly involve the restrictive partner, as when restrictive partners prohibit their partners from spending time with certain individuals.

Disparagement occurs when one partner fails to equally value the other partner and has an overall negative appraisal of his or her partner's worth.

TLDR; Researchers of a certain ideology popularized the idea that all male-on-female DV was motivated by a sexist desire to dominate women in relationships. They further promoted the idea that female-on-male DV was almost entirely in self-defense from an abusive male partner as women were thought not to be motivated by the desire to control their partner. Dominance in relationships is measured by a popular questionnaire in psychology.

If the researchers of a certain ideology were correct then we would expect this scale or others like it would find that dominance scores in males (but not females) would predict their use of DV. However, the majority of the data suggests that the male-on-female DV is on average not instrumental in nature.

Hope this helps. Let me know if it doesn't and I'll try to get you a satisfactory explanation. :)

[–]WikiSummarizerBot 1 point2 points3 points 5 years ago (0 children) | Copy Link

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points3 points 5 years ago (1 child) | Copy Link

[–]UnHope20[S] 1 point2 points3 points 5 years ago* (0 children) | Copy Link