The Relation Between Contempt, Anger, and Intimate Partner Violence: A Dyadic Approach

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a persistent problem in our society, and there is strong evidence for the existence of bidirectional violence in heterosexual romantic relationships. Couples' research has long focused on conflict and distressed communication patterns as a source of relationship distress and eventual dissolution. In addition to relationship dissatisfaction, dysfunctional communication also appears to be associated with elevated risk of IPV. In fact, one study found that communication difficulties were one of the most frequently self-reported motivations for committing partner violence in a sample of both males and females arrested for IPV. The current study sought to explore the association between the expression of distressed communication (contempt and anger) during a laboratory conflict discussion and reports of IPV perpetration using a dyadic data analysis method, the Actor Partner Interdependence Model, in a large ethnically diverse sample of heterosexual couples. We found that negative communication in the form of contempt was not only associated with one's own physical assault perpetration, but it was also associated with physical assault perpetration of the other partner. In contrast, anger was only associated with one's own physical assault perpetration. Therefore, our results highlight the potential efficacy of treatments for IPV that target negative communication patterns and affect.

Empathy Mediates the Relations between Working Memory and Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence and Aggression

“…Trained undergraduate research assistants coded displayed aggression using the Specific Affect coding system (SPAFF-16, [32]). SPAFF coding system was used because of its strong reliability and predictive qualities for both violent and non-violent couples during marital interaction tasks [33]. Emotions are measured by analyzing verbal content and tone, body posture, facial expression, and conversational context [34].…”

A Socioecological Perspective on Intimate Partner Violence Research: A Decade in Review

“…One partner's level of contempt was not only associated with the same partner's level of violence perpetration but also positively associated with perpetration by the other partner. Anger, on the other hand, only demonstrated an actor (within partner) effect on perpetration (Sommer, Iyican, & Babcock, ). Other dyad‐level variables have been shown to correlate with situational violence and verbal aggression including commitment (e.g., Arriaga, Capezza, & Daly, ; Slotter et al, ) and distressed communication (Sommer et al, ).…”

“…Anger, on the other hand, only demonstrated an actor (within partner) effect on perpetration (Sommer, Iyican, & Babcock, ). Other dyad‐level variables have been shown to correlate with situational violence and verbal aggression including commitment (e.g., Arriaga, Capezza, & Daly, ; Slotter et al, ) and distressed communication (Sommer et al, ). In addition, family history of aggression shows differential actor and partner effects on later physical violence perpetration and victimization.…”

Facial affect recognition moderates the relation between autonomic nervous system reactivity and aggression during dyadic conflict

“…Behavioral coding was conducted by trained undergraduate research assistants using the Specific Affect coding system (SPAFF: Coan & Gottman, 2007). SPAFF coding system has shown strong reliability and predictive qualities for couples during marital interaction tasks for both violent and nonviolent couples (Sommer, Lyican, & Babcock, 2019). Research assistants were trained on SPAFF coding systems to recognize 16 global codes from facial affect, body position and contents of speech.…”