Relations between marital discord, parental behavior, and child behavior were investigated in a sample of 37 battered women and 37 comparison mothers and their children, aged 2-8 years. It was hypothesized that violent fathers would be more irritable but less involved, battered women more stressed and inconsistent in discipline, and both parents would reportedly use fewer positive and more negative child-rearing responses than comparison families. Based on maternal self-reports and mother-child observations, the only robust self-report difference between the groups of mothers were the level of stress and reports of inconsistency in parenting; in contrast, all of the expected differences were found between the mothers' reports of the 2 groups of fathers. Group effects on child behavior problems were also found. Children from violent families were reported to have more internalizing behavior problems, more difficult temperaments, and to be more aggressive than the comparison children. In the violent families, maternal stress and paternal irritability were the 2 significant predictors of child behavior problems, whereas in the comparison families only maternal stress was a reliable predictor.

Relations between marital discord, parental behavior, and child behavior were investigated in a sample of 37 battered women and 37 comparison mothers and their children, aged 2-8 years. It was hypothesized that violent fathers would be more irritable but less involved, battered women more stressed and inconsistent in discipline, and both parents would reportedly use fewer positive and more negative child-rearing responses than comparison families. Based on maternal self-reports and mother-child observations, the only robust self-report difference between the groups of mothers were the level of stress and reports of inconsistency in parenting; in contrast, all of the expected differences were found between the mothers' reports of the 2 groups of fathers. Group effects on child behavior problems were also found. Children from violent families were reported to have more internalizing behavior problems, more difficult temperaments, and to be more aggressive than the comparison children. In the violent families, maternal stress and paternal irritability were the 2 significant predictors of child behavior problems, whereas in the comparison families only maternal stress was a reliable predictor.

now well recognized that children living in families characterized marital violence are victimized in a variety of ways. They are terrorized by hearing and seeing violent marital interactions. They are often subjected to a range of forms of psychological maltreatment, including being degraded, rejected, denied emotional responsiveness, and isolated from others (Geffner, 1996). Furthermore, they may be the recipients of physical abuse themselves: Studies are finding an overlap between marital violence and child physical abuse. Although determining the rate of co-occurrence of wife and child abuse is fraught with methodological problems, perhaps as many as 59% of children of battered women are also physically abused themselves (Appel, Angelelli, & Holden, 1997). In addition to these direct and indirect assaults on the children, maritally violent homes are often characterized by poverty, exposure to chronic community violence, high stress, and job and fam-This work was supported by grants from the H o g and H. F. Guggenheim Foundations. We thank

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Maternal behaviors and cognitions within power bouts and single acts of noncompliance were compared by using 2 methodologies. Ninety mothers completed daily telephone interviews concerning their children's misbehavior for 12 days. Half of the mothers also completed a computerized simulation of 3 different power bouts, and the other half of the mothers completed a similar simulation of 3 sets of single noncompliance episodes. Mothers made behavioral intention choices and rated their perceptions of the child's behavior in the computer simulation. Results indicate that power bouts formed a special class of discipline episodes distinct from single noncompliance. Mothers reported more negative perceptions of the child as well as more aversion during extended power bouts. Discussion focuses on possible different types of power bouts and the need for theories of socialization to include the transactive nature of discipline episodes.