This study uses three-level generalized Hierarchical Linear Modeling to examine trajectories of husbands' and wives' physical and emotional aggression over three assessments and the effects of years since marriage. In this community sample of 118 couples, physical aggression significantly decreased over time (43% per year). Emotional aggression did not significantly change over time, but trajectories significantly differed for husbands (3% increase) versus wives (10% decrease). Longer duration marriages had lower physical aggression and, for wives only, lower emotional aggression. Aggression trajectories showed considerable variability: 44-55% of physically aggressive spouses desisted from one assessment to the next; 5-12% reported start-ups in physical aggression. Discussion addresses the role of gender and type of aggression in aggression trajectories.
Keywordsintimate partner violence; psychological aggression; spousal abuse; growth curve analysis; longitudinal change Data on the prevalence, incidence, and seriousness of intimate partner violence call attention to the importance of understanding trajectories of partner violence. Estimates indicate 25% of women and 8% of men are physically assaulted or raped by an intimate partner at some time during their life (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000). Other samples reveal that as many as 21% of couples report intimate physical aggression each year (McDonald, Jouriles, Ramisetty-Mikler, Caetano, & Green, 2006). Research has shown that intimate relationship aggression has deleterious mental and physical health consequences for women (Bonomi et al, 2006;Coker, et al., 2002;Loxton, Schofield, & Hussain, 2006), as well as some negative health consequences for men (Coker, et al., 2002;Simonelli & Ingram, 1998;Taft et al, 2006). Assessments of intimate physical aggression based on lifetime incidence or 12-month prevalence data fail to capture the variability in partner aggression across time, particularly for couples in long-term relationships. The present study examines husbands' and wives' use of relationship aggression over three time points, providing information about the stability and trajectory of aggression, while calling attention to the potential fallibility of defining a couple as aggressive based on one time point. The study also examines the impact of years since marriage on aggression trajectories, thereby accounting for stage in relationship development on aggression.Although female victims are often the focus of intimate violence research, the considerable rates of aggression towards men (e.g. Archer, 2000) suggest the need to evaluate both male and female aggression. Clearly women suffer more severe consequences due to partner Address correspondence to: Katrina Vickerman, Department of Psychology, SGM 930, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 90089-1061 or email: E-mail: vickerma@usc.edu. (Archer, 2000;Holtzworth-Munroe, Smutzler, & Bates, 1997) and the context of and motivations for female perpetrated aggression may be different (Swan & Snow, ...