Gender Differences in Third-Party Reports of Violence

A two-factor analysis of variance design (Gender x Violence) was employed to investigate gender differences in recollections of parent-to-parent violence. In two samples females reported more parent-to-parent violence than males. These differences occurred independently qf self-reported histories of the subjects' own violence. Reports qf family violence may be influenced by the gender qf the observer. Bulcroft and Straus (1975) attempted to validate self-reports of marital violence by having a college-age child report on previous instances of violence between his or her parents. The results showed systematic differences in the violence reported by mothers and their children versus the violence noted by fathers and their children. Mothers reported more marital violence than that reported by their children. In contrast, fathers reported less marital violence than that reported by their children. Bulcroft and Straus postulate that this difference may be the consequence of mothers being more sensitive to marital violence; that is, violence may have more psychological visibility for females. Psychological visibility, however, may be influenced by the gender or the participation in violence of the reporting offspring, neither of which Bulcroft and Straus assessed

Developmental psychology · Domestic violence · Injury prevention · Medical emergency · Poison control · Suicide prevention · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics · Clinical Psychology · Human Factors and Ergonomics · Intimate Partner and Family Violence · Medicine · Psychology

• Gender effects in attitudes about family violence

  Open Access•Patricia R Koski, William D Mangold•Journal of Family Violence•1988

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• Prevalence of spouse aggression in Hong Kong

  Open Access•Catherine So-Kum Tang•Journal of Family Violence•1994

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• Gender comparisons in the relationship between parental and sibling violence and nonfamily violence

  Open Access•William D Mangold, Patricia R Koski•Journal of Family Violence•1990

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• Measuring Intrafamily Conflict and Violence

  M A Straus, Murray A Strau•Journal of Marriage and the Family•1979

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