Physical aggression in a community sample of at-risk young couples: Gender comparisons for high frequency, injury, and fear

The associations of frequent physical aggression, injury, and fear were examined for a community-based sample of at-risk young couples who were dating, cohabiting, or married. It was hypothesized that frequent physical aggression toward a partner, in the range of shelter samples, is largely caused by antisocial behavior and mutual couple conflict and, thus, that there would be greater similarity across genders in such behavior than has previously been supposed. It was also predicted that levels of injury and fear would be higher in women but that some men would experience these impacts. Findings indicated similarity across genders both in the prevalence of frequent aggression and in its association with antisocial behavior. Furthermore, such aggression was likely to be bidirectional in couples. Contrary to the hypothesis of the study, rates of injury and fear for the women were not significantly higher than for the men.