Objective. Using data from the Mexican American Prevalence and Services Survey (Vega et al., 1998), this research tests whether the impact of acculturation and gender role ideology on wife abuse depends on country of origin. Methods. Two separate logistic regressions, one for U.S.‐born Latinas and one for Mexican‐born Latinas, are compared to test the impact of the interaction of place of origin with the other variables. Results. Our findings support earlier research indicating that power dynamics within a relationship impact the likelihood of a wife reporting she has experienced abuse. Significant differences in the influence of independent variables are found when comparing U.S.‐ and Mexican‐born respondents. In particular, variables related to family power dynamics operate differently. Gender role beliefs, however, have an independent influence for both groups after controlling for sociodemographic factors and power dynamics. Women with more traditional orientations are less likely to report abuse. Conclusions. Because the impact of gender role ideology is significant and in the same direction for both those born in the United States and those born in Mexico, it is unlikely that the traditional familism and gender role orientations reported among the Mexican born afford them greater protection against abuse.

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and their own immediate supervisors' efforts to 'make honest and reasonable efforts to stop sexual harassment in the active-duty military' (DoD, 1988;Bastian et al., 1996). Results indicate that while the military has been somewhat successful in attempts to lower actual incidence of sexual harassment, the percentage of those experiencing such uninvited and unwanted behaviours remains high. Similar patterns of responses in both years, with most employing personal solutions and few filing complaints with officials, may reflect the fact that official DoD policy focuses on individual behaviour and does not address the masculine environmental context that promotes such behaviours (see also Harrell and Miller, 1997). Findings also suggest that the 'no tolerance' policies adopted by the military may concentrate on the military image but ignore the wishes of the complainants who fear reprisals. If the rights and wishes of all parties involved are not taken into account, policies are unlikely to be successful (see, for example, Rowe, 1996).

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The authors use ordinary least squares regression to determine the factors associated with the use of multiple abuse techniques against targets who reported abuse. The data for this analysis come from the 1985 Physical Violence in American Families, Third ICPSR Release. The authors' findings suggest that assaults on women occur within a context of unequal power relationships. Different types of assault appear to occur in a context of unequal means of economic survival. Women who are able to at least equalize their occupational prestige with their partner suffer fewer types of abuse than women whose prestige is lower than their partner's and women from lower socioeconomic households.