What Is Transmitted in the Intergenerational Transmission of Violence?

Author(s): Pamela C. Alexander, Sharon Moore, Elmore R. Alexander and III

Source: Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 53, No. 3 (Aug., 1991), pp. 657-667
Published by: National Council on Family Relations
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/352741
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 PAMELA C. ALEXANDER, SHARON MOORE,* AND ELMORE R. ALEXANDER III**
University of Maryland
What Is Transmitted in the
Intergenerational Transmission of Violence?
This study investigates the intergenerational trans-
mission of violence among dating partners. Hier-
archical regression analysis was used to answer
three questions: What is (are) (a) the effect of a
history of violence on dating violence, (b) the ef-
fects of witnessing marital violence on one's own
attitudes toward women, and (c) the effect of atti-
tudes toward women on dating violence? Severe
abuse by his father predicted a man's violent be-
havior. Witnessing marital violence predicted a
woman's liberal attitudes and a man's conserva-
tive attitudes. Finally, a discrepancy in attitudes
toward women and particularly a woman's liberal
attitudes toward women predicted her violent be-
havior.
In recent years, attention has begun to focus on
the high prevalence of violence in dating relation-
ships. Makepeace (1981), for example, found that
more than one-fifth of his respondents reported
having been the victim or the perpetrator of pre-
marital violence. Cate, Henton, Koval, Christo-
pher, and Lloyd (1982) reported a similar inci-
dence of violence in their sample and also dis-
covered that half of this group had been involved
in a reciprocally violent dating relationship. "Vio-
lence" is typically defined as "an act carried out
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College
Park, MD 20742-4411.
*Department of Psychology, Memphis State University, Mem-
phis, TN 38152.
**Department of Management, Kogod College of Business Ad-
ministration, American University, Washington, DC 20016.
Journal of Marriage and the Family 53 (August 1991): 657-668 657
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with the intention of causing physical pain or in-
jury to another person" (Straus, 1986: 141).
Therefore, figures referring to dating violence do
not even include verbal abuse or threats, even
though the threat of assault could be more coer-
cive than a mild shove (Makepeace, 1981). When
the threat of violence or verbal abuse is also as-
sessed, the incidence increases dramatically (Lane
and Gwartney-Gibbs, 1985; Thompson, 1987).
Dating violence is not only important as a phe-
nomenon in itself but also because it precedes
marital violence and thus may provide a link in
the intergenerational transmission of violence. In
fact, Roscoe and Benaske (1985) interviewed
women who had been physically abused by their
husbands and found many parallels between their
experiences of courtship violence and marital vio-
lence. Therefore, any attempt to understand and
to intervene in the transmission of values that
tolerate the use of violence in intimate relation-
ships must include a consideration of dating vio-
lence.
Evidence on the intergenerational transmission
of violence has focused on two main antecedents
of dating and marital abuse-the experience of
growing up in an abusive home and the encultura-
tion of patriarchal values. Social learning theory
has been used as a model to examine the effects of
either experiencing abuse oneself as a child or wit-
nessing abusiveness between one's parents. Re-
searchers of marital and dating violence have
found that a history of abuse is related to a later
involvement in an abusive relationship for both
males and females (Bernard and Bernard, 1983;
Kalmuss, 1984; Telch and Lindquist, 1984). How-
ever, other researchers have noted that this history
 658 Journal of Marriage and the Family
of abuse has differential effects upon men and
women. Sigelman, Berry, and Wiles (1984) found
that having been abused as a child predicted later
involvement in abuse for women but not for men,
whereas Telch and Lindquist (1984) found exactly
the opposite results. With respect to the observa-
tion of marital violence, O'Leary and Curley
(1986) found that abusive men were more likely to
have witnessed violence between their parents
than were women in an abusive marriage. Similar-
ly, Telch and Lindquist (1984) found that al-
though more abused wives had witnessed marital
violence than had nonabused wives, they still were
less likely to have witnessed it than were their
abusive husbands. Therefore, although a history
of either witnessing or experiencing abuse seems
to be prevalent among men and women in abusive
relationships, the exact nature of that influence
on men and women remains unclear.
Feminist theory has also been used as a con-
ceptual framework for explaining the presence of
violence between males and females. Feminist
theory views violence as a manifestation of the pa-
triarchal structure in our culture, which is re-
flected in the patterns of behaviors and attitudes
of individuals (Gentemann, 1984; Kalmuss, 1984).
Researchers have indeed discovered that abusive
men frequently espouse more traditional views
about women than do nonabusive men (Bernard,
Bernard, and Bernard, 1985; Sigelman et al.,
1984; Telch and Lindquist, 1984) or at least are
seen by their wives as having more traditional
views (Rosenbaum and O'Leary, 1981). Converse-
ly, more recent research has found no clear rela-
tionship between men's attitudes toward women
and violent behavior toward their partners (John-
ston, 1988; Rouse, 1988). The evidence regarding
women's attitudes is similarly mixed. Rosenbaum
and O'Leary (1981) found no difference between
abused wives and those in discordant or satisfied
marriages in their attitudes toward women. Simi-
larly, Korman and Leslie (1982) found no rela-
tionship between adherence to feminist ideology
and the experience of sexual aggression in a dating
relationship. Other researchers have concluded
that the discrepancy between a couple's attitudes
toward women's sex roles may be a more signifi-
cant predictor of violence than the actual values
of either the man or the woman (Rosenbaum and
O'Leary, 1981; Sigelman et al., 1984). In sum-
mary, support for a feminist conceptualization of
the intergenerational transmission of violence re-
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quires evidence of an association between violence
and patriarchal values both within an abusive cou-
ple and between generations.
There are a number of reasons why the re-
search on intergenerational transmission of dating
and marital violence has produced such mixed re-
sults. First, although most researchers acknowl-
edge that violence is a continuous variable ranging
from verbal abuse to varying degrees of physical
abuse, many studies make comparisons between
dichotomous groups only-couples engaging in
physical violence and those who are not (e.g., Ber-
nard et al., 1985; Sigelman et al., 1984). Second,
the research on violent couples' attitudes toward
women does not attempt to address whether these
attitudes (either extremely traditional or extremely
liberal) were established prior to the initiation of
abuse or were the result of the violence. For exam-
ple, while some women may become more mili-
tant about the subject of violence as a function of
having been abused, other women in abusive rela-
tionships may come to evince a "learned helpless-
ness" response to the violence (Walker, 1983) and
may actually espouse more traditional views.
While the only certain way to determine causality
with respect to this question lies in the use of
longitudinal research, a consideration of histori-
cal events relative to current attitudes can provide
some basis for making inferences about causa-
tion. Finally, any study on the intergenerational
transmission of violence needs to determine what
is actually transmitted or modeled from parents to
their children--abusive behaviors or the attitude
that men are justified in maintaining the subordi-
nation of women.
To these ends, the following study was de-
signed to answer three sets of questions about dat-
ing violence: (a) What is the effect of experiencing
or witnessing violence in one's family of origin on
subsequent verbal and physical abuse in a dating
relationship? Moreover, does this experience of
family violence have differential effects on men
and women? (b) What is the effect of witnessing
violence between one's parents on one's attitudes
toward women? Is there a differential effect on
men and women? (c) What is the effect of one's
attitudes toward women on subsequent verbal and
physical abuse in a dating relationship? Further-
more, is there a differential effect on men and
women and is there an interaction between one's
own attitudes and those of one's partner on subse-
quent dating violence?
 Intergenerational Transmission of Violence 659
Figure 1 presents the hypothesized relation-
ships among abuse in the family of origin, atti-
tudes toward women, and dating violence.
FIGURE 1. HYPOTHESIZED PREDICTORS OF ATTITUDES
TOWARD WOMEN AND DATING VIOLENCE
Abuse in Family of Origin
(Experiencing & Witnessing) h
Dating
Violence
Witnessing of Own t
Marital Violence Attitudes ?
Partner's
Presumed Attitudes
METHOD
Subjects
Subjects in this study were selected from a group
of 459 men and women attending an urban South-
ern university who completed a series of question-
naires for extra credit. Only those individuals who
were not presently married but were involved in a
dating relationship of at least six months duration
(n = 380) were included in the following analyses.
The length of the dating relationships ranged
from six months to more than ten years (mean =
1.9 years, SD = .57). The final sample consisted
of 152 males and 228 females with a mean age of
20 years (SD = 3.2).
Measures
Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS). Developed by
Straus (1979), this is the most widely used measure
of family violence. Respondents are asked to indi-
cate whether and how often certain behaviors
have ever been used to resolve conflict. The items
range from "discussed the issue calmly" to "used
a knife or gun" and comprise three subscales--
Reasoning, Verbal Aggression, and Violence. For
the purpose of this study, the Verbal Aggression
and Violence subscales were used. Straus (1979)
has reported internal consistency reliability scores
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of .77 to .88 for the Verbal Aggression scale and
.62 to .88 for the Violence scale.
Respondents completed separate question-
naires to describe (a) their father's violent be-
havior toward their mother (CTSVIFM), (b) their
mother's violent behavior toward their father
(CTSVIMF), (c) their father's violent behavior
toward themselves (CTSVIFS), (d) their mother's
violent behavior toward themselves (CTSVIMS),
(e) their own verbally aggressive and violent be-
havior toward their partner (CTSVBSP,
CTSVISP), and (f) their partner's verbally aggres-
sive and violent behavior toward themselves
(CTSVBPS, CTSVIPS). The present research re-
quired subjects to describe their parents' behavior
during the time that they were living at home and
to describe their own behavior with their dating
partner during the course of the dating rela-
tionship (cf. Johnston, 1988). The questionnaire
required respondents to report on the frequency
of occurrence of each conflict tactic (0 = never; 1
= once; 2 = twice; 3 = 3-5 times; 4 = 6-10
times; 5 = 11-20 times; and 6 = more than 20
times). Items were then summed to yield measures
of verbal aggression and violent behavior.
As noted by Straus and Gelles (1986), several
behaviors such as slapping, spanking, and hitting
with an object are commonly used as a means of
discipline with children and yet would constitute
abusiveness if used with a spouse. Therefore,
these items were omitted from the measures of
parental violence toward the respondent
(CTSVIFS, CTSVIMS), and these measures in-
stead reflect only severe violence. Finally, because
the rates of observed physical violence by the
father to the mother and by the mother to the
father were so highly correlated (r = .89, p <
.001), these two scales (CTSVIFM and
CTSVIMF) were averaged to yield one scale re-
flecting marital violence (CTSVIALL).
Attitudes toward Women Scale (A WS). This scale
was developed by Spence and Helmreich (1972) to
measure the views of respondents regarding the
roles and rights of women in contemporary soci-
ety. The present study used the short version
(Spence, Helmreich, and Stapp, 1973), which is
composed of 25 items and which, like the longer
version, is a Likert-type scale with four response
options: agree strongly, agree mildly, disagree
mildly, disagree strongly. Correlations between
the full-length AWS and the short-form AWS
 660 Journal of Marriage and the Family

TABLE 1. MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS FOR CONFLICT TACTICS SCALES AND
ATTITUDES TOWARD WOMEN

Males (n = 152) Females (n = 228)

Variable Mean SD Mean SD

Conflict Tactics Scales

CTSVIFS .934 3.195 .692 2.358
CTSVIMS .550 1.795 .387 1.636
CTSVIALL 3.976 8.844 4.436 8.290
CTSVBSP 9.942 7.292 9.473 7.072
CTSVBPS 9.934 7.386 7.507 7.310
CTSVISP 2.115 4.517 3.009 5.910
CTSVIPS 3.213 6.982 2.392 5.294
Attitudes toward women
AWSS 53.224 11.503 45.881 8.605
AWSP 48.710 10.701 60.477 11.797

Note: CTSVIFS = physical violence from father to self; CTSVIMS = physical violence from mother to self;
CTSVIALL = witnessing of physical violence between parents; CTSVBSP = verbal aggression from self to partner;
CTSVBPS = verbal aggression from partner to self; CTSVISP = physical violence from self to partner; CTSVIPS =
physical violence from partner to self; AWSS = attitudes toward women of self; AWSP = attitudes toward women
of partner.

were .968 for college men and .969 for college General Data Analysis Techniques
women (Spence et al., 1973).
Hierarchical regression analysis as described by
Respondents completed separate question-
Pedhazur (1982) was utilized to evaluate the three
naires to describe (a) their partner's presumed at-
research questions. For each dependent variable,
titudes toward women (AWSP) and (b) their own
the first step was to estimate an equation that con-
attitudes toward women (AWSS). Item scores
tained all of the main-effect independent vari-
were summed to yield a total score ranging from
ables. The second step was to test various interac-
25 (extremely liberal) to 100 (extremely conserva-
tion terms (created by multiplying main-effect
tive).
variables by each other) for significance. The in-
teractions were judged to be significant if their ad-
RESULTS dition to the equation containing all of the main
effects resulted in a significant increase in R2 (p
Means and standard deviations for the responses
< .05). For the significant interactions, separate
of males and females on each of the Conflict Tac-
equations were then calculated for (a) males and
tics Scales and on the Attitudes toward Women
females in the case of interactions involving sex
Scale are summarized in Table 1. Zero-order cor-
and for (b) high and low AWSS (one's attitudes
relations among family abuse variables, attitudes
toward women) for interactions involving that
toward women, and measures of dating violence
variable. By comparing the slopes of males vs. fe-
are summarized in Table 2.
males or individuals with liberal vs. conservative
attitudes, one is able to observe the change in the
nature of the relationship between the dependent

TABLE 2. ZERO-ORDER CORRELATIONS AMONG FAMILY ABUSE, ATTITUDES TOWARD

WOMEN, AND DATING VIOLENCE
Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1. CTSVIFS - .251 .642 -.056 -.076 -.017 -.055 .000 -.024
2. CTSVIMS .087 - .345 .018 -.075 .126 -.010 .078 .016
3. CTSVIALL .180 .472 - -.106 -.083 .053 -.007 .045 .039
4. AWSS -.044 -.026 .031 - .164 -.023 -.028 .031 .045
5. AWSP .103 -.040 .039 .096 - .365 .411 .544 .581
6. CTSVBSP .106 .007 .106 .066 .616 - .825 .725 .679
7. CTSVBPS .143 .054 .064 .086 .748 .821 - .697 .718
8. CTSVISP .117 -.071 .064 -.480 .780 .841 .766 - .938
9. CTSVIPS .105 -.012 -.003 .053 .867 .755 .886 .897 -

Note: Females are above the diagonal.

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 Intergenerational Transmission of Violence 661

variable and the other variable involved in the in-
teraction as either sex or attitudes vary.
Research Question 1:
Abusiveness in the Family of Origin
The first research question examined the direct
impact of witnessing abuse and being abused on
one's subsequent involvement in abusive relation-
ships. Four dependent variables were examined
here: (a) CTSVBPS (verbally abused by partner);
(b) CTSVBSP (verbally abused partner); (c)
CTSVIPS (physically abused by partner); and (d)
CTSVISP (physically abused partner). Indepen-
dent variables consisted of the individual's sex,
the length of the dating relationship (RELTIME),
experience of physical abuse by one's father
(CTSVIFS), experience of physical abuse by one's
mother (CTSVIMS), and witnessing of abusive-
ness between one's parents (CTSVIALL). The in-
teraction of sex with each of the last three
variables was considered in the hierarchical analy-
sis. Table 3 contains the results of the regression
analyses for the main-effect variables for Re-
search Question 1.
Sex and the length of the relationship
(RELTIME) were significantly related to the
probability of being verbally abusive to one's
partner (CTSVBSP) as well as to the probability
of being verbally abused by one's partner
(CTSVBPS), suggesting that males were more
likely to report verbal abuse and that verbal abuse
was positively related to the length of the relation-
ship. There were no significant main effects to
predict the probability of being physically abusive
to one's partner (CTSVISP). However, men were
more likely to report being physically abused by
their partner (CTSVIPS).
One interaction variable was significant for
each of the dependent variables-the interaction
of sex and CTSVIFS (a history of severe abuse by
one's father). The derivation of the equations for
this interaction required calculating separate
equations for males and females. This was ac-
complished by substituting mean values of 0 for
males and 1 for females into the equation contain-
ing the interaction terms. Table 6 contains sum-
marized results for these four significant interac-
tions. The slopes for these equations suggest that
males alone are more likely to report being ver-
bally abusive (CTSVBSP), being verbally abused
(CTSVBPS), being physically abusive
(CTSVISP), and being physically abused
(CTSVIPS) by their partner if they have been
severely abused by their father.
Research Question 2:
Attitudes toward Women
Research Question 2 examined the direct impact

TABLE 3. RESULTS OF REGRESSION ANALYSES FOR THE EFFECT OF VIOLENCE IN THE FAMILY OF
ORIGIN ON DATING VIOLENCE (RESEARCH QUESTION 1)
Dependent Variable Sex CTSVIMS RELTIME CTSVIFS CTSVIALL R2 F
CTSVBSP
0 -.1014 .0588 .1477 -.0113 .0552 .0385 2.99*
t -1.9920 1.0610 2.8980 -.1930 .8820
p .0471 .2895 .0040 .8473 .3783
CTSVBPS
0 -.1724 .0281 .1558 .0152 -.0233 .0530 4.18***
t -3.4150 .5120 3.0810 .2610 -.0370
p .0007 .6093 .0022 .7939 .9701
CTSVISP
0 -.0833 -.0168 .0752 .0350 .0470 .0165 1.26
t -1.6200 -.2990 1.4600 .5910 .7420
p .1061 .7650 .1452 .5549 .4584
CTSVIPS
0 -.1292 .0056 .0725 .0373 -.0107 .0223 1.71
t -2.5180 .0990 1.4110 .6330 -.1700
p .0122 .9209 .1592 .5273 .8655
Note: CTSVBSP = verbal aggression from self to partner; CTSVBPS = verbal aggression from partner to self;
CTSVISP = physical violence from self to partner; CTSVIPS = physical violence from partner to self; CTSVIMS =
physical violence from mother to self; RELTIME = length of dating relationship; CTSVIFS = physical violence
from father to self; CTSVIALL = witnessing of physical violence between parents.
*p < .02. ***p < .001.

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 662 Journal of Marriage and the Family

TABLE 4. RESULTS OF REGRESSION ANALYSES FOR THE EFFECT OF WITNESSING VIOLENCE BETWEEN
PARENTS ON ATTITUDES TOWARD WOMEN (RESEARCH QUESTION 2)
Dependent Variable Sex CTSVIALL R2 F
AWSS
0 -.2059 -.0409 .0450 8.89***
t -4.0830 -.8120
p .0001 .4174
Note: AWSS = attitudes toward women of self; CTSVIALL = witnessing of physical violence between parents.
***p < .001.

of witnessing violence between one's parents on
one's own attitudes toward women. The effects of
the independent variables of sex, CTSVIALL
(witnessing violence between one's parents), and
the interaction of sex and CTSVIALL on the de-
pendent variable of AWSS (one's own attitudes
toward women) were analyzed in a hierarchical
analysis. Table 4 contains the results for the main-
effect variables.
Men described their attitudes toward women
as significantly more conservative than did
women. Furthermore, the interaction of sex and
CTSVIALL was significant. Table 6 contains
these summarized results. The slopes for these
equations suggest that females were significantly
less likely to be conservative in their attitudes
toward women and males were significantly more
likely to be conservative if they had witnessed vio-
lence between their parents (CTSVIALL).
Research Question 3:
Attitudes toward Women and Dating Violence
The third research question examined the direct
impact of one's own attitudes toward women and
one's perceptions of one's partner's attitudes to-
ward women on subsequent involvement in abu-
sive relationships. The dependent variables were
the same as they were for Research Question 1
(CTSVBPS, CTIVBSP, CTSVIPS, and CTSVISP
-receiving and extending verbal and physical
abuse). Independent variables were sex, one's
own attitudes toward women (AWSS), and one's
partner's presumed attitudes toward women
(AWSP). Both the interaction of sex with AWSS
and AWSP as well as the interaction of AWSS
with AWSP were considered in the hierarchical
analysis. Table 5 summarizes the results for the
main-effects analyses for the four dependent vari-
ables.
Both sex and the presumed attitudes of one's
partner (AWSP) were found to be significantly re-
lated to being verbally abusive (CTSVBSP), being
verbally abused (CTSVBPS), being physically
abusive (CTSVISP), and being physically abused
(CTSVIPS) by one's partner. More specifically,
men reported higher rates of verbal and physical
abuse, both extended and received. Furthermore,

TABLE 5. RESULTS OF REGRESSION ANALYSES OF THE EFFECT OF ATTITUDES TOWARD WOMEN ON

DATING VIOLENCE (RESEARCH QUESTION 3)
Dependent Variable Sex AWSP AWSS R2 F
CTSVBSP
0 -.1029 .5113 -.0140 .2690 46.13****
t -2.2820 11.5160 -.3080
p .0230 .0001 .7582
CTSVBPS
/3 -.1730 .5953 .0009 .3826 77.67****
t -4.1730 14.5910 .0220
p .0001 .0001 .9822
CTSVISP
P-.0860 .6893 -.0156 .4787 115.08****
t -2.2580 18.3840 -.4070
p .0245 .0001 .6843
CTSVIPS
3 -.1345 .7577 -.0069 .5888 179.48****
t -3.9750 22.7560 -.2010
p .0001 .0001 .8404
****p < .0001.

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 Intergenerational Transmission of Violence 663

TABLE 6. RESULTS OF REGRESSION ANALYSES OF INTERACTIONS INVOLVING SEX

Dependent Independent Variable Change Slope for Slope for

Variable Interacting with Sex Fa in R2 Males Females
CTSVBSP CTSVIFS 3.91* .01 .28 -.16
CTSVBPS CTSVIFS 7.48** .02 .46 -.18
CTSVISP CTSVIFS 4.68* .01 .68 -.15
CTSVIPS CTSVIFS 4.07* .01 .68 -.12
AWSS CTSVIALL 8.07** .02 1.74 -1.10
CTSVBSP AWSS 4.63* .01 -.01 -.07
CTSVBPS AWSS 14.63*** .03 .00 -.10
CTSVBPS AWSP 6.69** .01 .16 .11
CTSVISP AWSS 7.28** .01 -.03 -.14
CTSVISP AWSP 14.15*** .02 .30 .19
CTSVIPS AWSS 15.37*** .02 -.01 -.15
CTSVIPS AWSP 21.59*** .02 .34 .21

aF associated with the interaction. (df = 1, 376).

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

the reported conservatism of one's partner's atti-
tudes toward women was found to predict verbal
and physical abuse, both extended and received.
Table 6 provides summaries for the several sig-
nificant interactions of sex with AWSS and
AWSP, while Table 7 provides summaries for the
significant interactions of AWSS with AWSP.
The slopes of the equations for the interaction
of sex with one's own attitudes toward women
(AWSS) suggest that women with conservative
views are significantly less likely than women with
liberal views to report verbal and physical abuse,
both extended and received. Conversely, men's
reports of verbal and physical abuse, both ex-
tended and received, do not appear to be related
to their own attitudes toward women (AWSS).
The slopes of the equations for the interaction of
sex with one's partner's presumed attitudes to-
ward women (AWSP) suggest that men who de-
scribe their partner's attitudes as conservative are
significantly more likely than women to report be-
ing verbally abused, being physically abusive, and
being physically abused by their partner.
The slopes of the equations for the interaction
of one's own attitudes toward women (AWSS)
with one's partner's presumed attitudes toward
women (AWSP) were derived by calculating sep-
arate equations for those with liberal attitudes to-
ward women (low AWSS) and for those with con-
servative attitudes toward women (high AWSS).
This was accomplished by substituting values at
the 25th and 75th percentiles of the range of
values for this sample for low AWSS and for high
AWSS, respectively. The equations suggest that,
relative to those with liberal attitudes toward
women (low AWSS), individuals with conserva-
tive attitudes toward women (high AWSS) are
more likely to report being verbally and physically
abusive if their partner's attitudes are seen as lib-
eral. On the other hand, they are less likely to re-
port being verbally and physically abused than are
those with liberal attitudes toward women if their
partner's attitudes are seen as conservative.
DISCUSSION
In considering these results, it is important to re-
member that they are based on the reports of the
respondents. Therefore, they reflect the respon-
dents' perceptions of themselves and their dating

TABLE 7. RESULTS OF REGRESSION ANALYSES OF INTERACTIONS OF AWSS AND AWSP

Dependent Change Slope of AWSP x Slope of AWSP x

Variable Fa in R2 Low AWSS High AWSS
CTSVBSP 12.69*** .03 .02 -.03
CTSVBPS 7.33** .01 .07 .04
CTSVISP 50.20*** .06 .01 -.12
CTSVIPS 52.72*** .05 .20 .09

Note: Low and high AWSS are defined as the 25th and 75th percentiles, respectively, of the range of values for
this sample.
aF associated with the interaction (df = 1, 375).
**p < .01. ***p < .001.

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 664 Journal ofMarriage and the Family
partners and, as such, are subject to bias. By way
of illustration, although it would not be unreason-
able to assume that the respondents and their
partners are from the same population, they re-
portedly differ on certain dimensions. This discus-
sion will attempt to reconcile some of the more
overt discrepancies.
Incidence of Verbal and Physical Abuse
Males reported being more verbally abusive to
their partners than did females as well as receiving
substantially more verbal abuse from their part-
ners than they themselves extended. On the other
hand, females did not report as much verbal abuse
in their dating relationships. However, both males
and females reported that their own level of verbal
aggression was similar to that of their partners.
Similarly, males described themselves as being sig-
nificantly more physically violent than did fe-
males and as being more abused themselves by
their partners. Both males and females were very
likely to characterize any physical violence in their
relationship as being reciprocal (r = .897 and .938
for males and females, respectively). Whether
males and females see themselves as equally re-
sponsible for the violence or as merely fighting
back is less clear.
There is no ready explanation for why males
described more abusiveness overall. The idea that
the men might be more willing to acknowledge
abuse in their dating relationships would be con-
sistent with other findings. For example, Laner
(1983) suggested that men are more likely to re-
port a higher level of violence simply because they
are more socialized to accept or approve of it. In
any case, the levels of physical violence described
by this sample (32.5% described themselves as be-
ing physically abusive and 31.8% as being physi-
cally abused) were comparable to or even greater
than those found by other researchers (Cate et al.,
1982; Lane and Gwartney-Gibbs, 1985; Make-
peace, 1981). Therefore, these figures, combined
with the high reciprocity in violence described by
the respondents, argue against an effect of social
desirability in this study.
The length of the dating relationship was
found to be significantly related to the amount of
verbal abuse extended and received. However, it
was not found to predict physical violence in the
relationship.
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Research Question 1:
Abusiveness in the Family of Origin
Witnessing violence between one's parents was
not predictive of either extending or receiving ver-
bal and physical abuse in the dating relationship.
Similarly, being physically abused by one's
mother did not predict dating violence. Further-
more, physical abuse by one's father was not pre-
dictive of a woman's involvement in dating vio-
lence. However, physical abuse by one's father
was highly predictive of a man's extending and re-
ceiving both verbal abuse and physical abuse in a
dating relationship (suggesting that the abuse he
received was probably in response to his initiation
of it).
The findings from this study were consistent
with those of Rosenbaum and O'Leary (1981)
and O'Leary and Curley (1986) that males are
more likely to model the abusive behaviors of
their parents than are females. In this sample, the
strongest direct determinant of later dating vio-
lence was physical abuse of the male by his father.
This finding is consistent with the observation by
Comins (1984) that family environments charac-
terized by harsh physical punishment are associ-
ated with the perpetration of dating violence. The
lack of influence of witnessing marital violence
may be attributed to investigating a nonclinical
sample (as opposed to the clinical samples used by
Rosenbaum and O'Leary, 1981, and O'Leary and
Curley, 1986) in which the roles of husband and
wife had not yet been adopted. The primacy of
the effect of physical abuse of the male by his
father suggests the importance of emphasizing
this issue in the treatment of abusive couples.
Research Question 2:
Attitudes toward Women
The second regression analysis was used to deter-
mine the influence of the family of origin in estab-
lishing one's attitudes toward women. In particu-
lar, it was hypothesized that one's attitudes to-
ward women would be influenced by having wit-
nessed violence between one's parents. The signi-
ficant interaction between sex and witnessing
marital violence suggests that the latter may in-
deed have a powerful effect in the enculturation
of values in children who see their parents fight.
The finding that males who witnessed marital vio-
lence were more conservative in their current atti-
 Intergenerational Transmission of Violence 665
tudes toward women is consistent with other re-
search suggesting that the experience of witnessing
abuse between parents appears to have a strong
impact on boys (O'Leary and Curley, 1986; Telch
and Lindquist, 1984). The present research sug-
gests that, whether or not abusive behavior is sub-
sequently modeled by the son in his own intimate
relationships, he is at least more likely to espouse
a more conservative point of view.
Although past research has been equivocal
about the effects on a daughter of witnessing
marital violence, the present research suggests
that she is more likely to espouse liberal attitudes
toward women. Whether, however, these atti-
tudes protect her from an abusive relationship
herself is less clear. As will be demonstrated in the
subsequent section, any violence depends in part
on the interactions of the woman's attitudes with
those of her partner.
Research Question 3:
Attitudes toward Women and Dating Violence
One of the significant interactions to emerge from
the third set of regression analyses was that of
one's own attitudes toward women with one's
partner's presumed attitudes toward women in
determining the level of violent behavior. Specifi-
cally, the level of violent behavior among individ-
uals with liberal attitudes toward women was un-
likely to be related to the liberal or conservative
nature of their partner's views. However, those
liberal individuals who were being abused did de-
scribe their partner as having more conservative
attitudes. On the other hand, individuals with
conservative attitudes toward women described
themselves as most violent when they saw their
partner as having liberal attitudes and not violent
at all when they saw their partner's attitudes as
also conservative. Furthermore, the report of vio-
lence received by conservative individuals did not
appear to be related to their perceptions of their
partner's attitudes as liberal or conservative.
Therefore, self-reports from those with liberal at-
titudes, from those with conservative attitudes,
from those who themselves were violent, and
from those whose partner was violent toward
them were all consistent in suggesting that a dis-
crepancy in attitudes toward women would result
in the abuse of the liberal partner by the conserva-
tive one. Furthermore, abuse by an individual
with liberal attitudes toward women was reported
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to be relatively unrelated to the partner's pre-
sumed attitudes.
Gender also interacted with attitudes toward
women in determining the level of violent beha-
vior extended and received. Men's reported in-
volvement in violence (either extended or re-
ceived) was unrelated to their own attitudes to-
ward women. On the other hand, women de-
scribed themselves as most abusive and as being
most abused when their attitudes toward women
were very liberal. This reported level of violence
dropped off quickly as women described them-
selves as more conservative. With respect to the
partner's presumed attitudes toward women, both
men and women described themselves as more
abusive and as receiving more abuse when they
perceived their partner's attitudes to be more con-
servative; however, this was significantly more
true for men than for women. It is noteworthy
that both men and women reported that it was the
woman's attitudes that were primarily associated
with the occurrence of violence. These findings
are consistent with those of Sigelman et al. (1984),
who also found that a discrepancy in attitudes
toward women predicted a woman's abusive be-
havior but not a man's. They similarly found a
curvilinear relationship between dominance and
violence for women (suggesting that both men
and women may be correct in associating violence
with either an extremely dominant or an extremely
passive stance on the part of the woman).
In spite of the consistency of report that the
woman's attitudes were most relevant to the oc-
currence of violence (perhaps because the violence
affected a woman's attitudes about herself and
other women significantly more than it affected a
man's attitudes about her and women in general),
men and women did not describe in similar terms
what the woman's attitudes toward women (and
presumably herself) actually were. While women
in violent relationships described their attitudes as
highly liberal, men in violent relationships de-
scribed their partner's attitudes as highly conser-
vative. These findings suggest that the woman in a
violent dating relationship may see herself as
highly assertive in reaction to an oppressive part-
ner. This liberal view of herself may paradoxically
help her justify the maintenance of the relation-
ship even though it is violent. On the other hand,
the man in a violent dating relationship appar-
ently sees his partner as highly traditional and
conservative, possibly because the relationship is
 666 Journal of Marriage and the Family
maintained in spite of its abusiveness. The impact
of these different perceptions of the woman in the
violent relationship needs to be assessed.
Results from this study suggest that both social
learning theory and feminist theory are relevant to
the intergenerational transmission of violence.
For example, from a social learning theory per-
spective, a man's involvement in dating violence is
best predicted by his having been severely abused
by his father. On the other hand, although his be-
havior is not directly predicted by having wit-
nessed violence between his parents, his attitudes
toward women apparently are. Subsequently, his
own attitudes are relevant to the perpetration of
violence only as they interact with those of his
partner.
A woman's involvement in dating violence is
not predicted by either having witnessed or having
experienced abuse in her family of origin. This is
not to say, however, that a woman's early experi-
ence is irrelevant to later involvement in violence.
This study suggests that the experience of witness-
ing marital violence directly contributes to the de-
velopment of more liberal attitudes in women. Al-
though these liberal attitudes do not seem to pre-
dict the type of man with whom she may have a
relationship, they are associated, from the
woman's self-report, with an increased probabil-
ity of violence (extended and received) if her part-
ner's views should happen to be perceived as con-
servative-in other words, if her dating relation-
ship should happen to mirror the prototype she
developed in childhood. Therefore, it appears
that the attitudes of both men and women are af-
fected (in converse ways) by having witnessed vio-
lence between their parents, but these attitudes
only have an effect on actual behavior when they
are perceived as discrepant between the partners.
Therefore, the enculturation of patriarchal atti-
tudes described by feminist theory is particularly
salient when one examines the interaction between
the two dating partners.
It is important to clarify what this study can
and cannot justifiably suggest about the intergen-
erational transmission of violence. On one hand,
the present research is correlational and cannot
guarantee causality either with respect to the role
of the family of origin or with respect to whether a
discrepancy in attitudes precedes dating violence
or results from it. On the other hand, to the extent
that the current attitudes of both men and women
are associated with the past experience of witness-
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ing marital violence, this study suggests that the
observed discrepancy in attitudes toward women
between violent partners exists prior to the occur-
rence of the dating violence. Whether this dis-
crepancy in attitudes is exacerbated by the vio-
lence is not clear.
Our argument here is that people are influ-
enced by and act on the basis of their perceptions
of others' attitudes. Whether the perceptions are
consistent with the intent or belief of the other is
irrelevant in the prediction of violence. However,
the accuracy of the perceptions is indeed impor-
tant with regard to treatment. Attitudes of violent
partners need to be addressed within the context
of the relationship because that is the only way to
assess each partner's attitudes and the accuracy of
their perceptions of the other and to then resolve
these differences. This study would therefore
question whether consciousness-raising of abused
women in and of itself is effective in precluding
further violence. Liberal attitudes do not neces-
sarily protect women from violent relationships.
They appear neither to encourage individuals to
seek out partners with like-minded views nor to
preclude or protect them from becoming involved
in violence if the views of their partner are indeed
different from their own. Therefore, it is essential
to work closely with both members of a violent
couple in order to promote a more egalitarian
relationship and to help them achieve a consensus
about their roles. O'Leary, Curley, Rosenbaum,
and Clarke's (1985) discovery that assertiveness
training is hazardous for abused wives may be
precisely because it involves a change in the be-
havior and attitudes of only one party and thereby
may actually increase role discrepancy. Finally,
any change in attitudes toward women must be di-
rected toward men as much as toward women if
women are not to become even more vulnerable to
violence in a dating or marital relationship.
In conclusion, this study provides evidence on
two distinct mechanisms of intergenerational
transmission of violence. Men seem to model vio-
lent behaviors directly, as a function of experienc-
ing abuse by their father, which lends support to
the role of social learning theory. In addition, the
attitudes of both men and women are influenced
(although in opposite ways) by having witnessed
violence between their parents. To the extent that
the attitudes of dating partners are discrepant, the
result is an increased likelihood of violence.
Therefore, the enculturation of attitudes toward
 Intergenerational Transmission of Violence 667
women is affected by having witnessed marital
violence (as would be suggested by feminist
theory), but has a direct impact on actual be-
havior only through the interaction of attitudes of
the partners.
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