The alcohol-aggression link: children's aggression expectancies in marital arguments as a function of the sobriety or intoxication of the arguing couple

Children's expectancies of man-woman and woman-man aggression during arguments between individuals who were either intoxicated or sober were examined. The role of child and familial characteristics in influencing these expectancies was assessed. We examined children's expectations of interadult verbal/psychological and physical aggression during simulated arguments presented to children on videotapes. A community sample (N = 156) of children and young adolescents (6-14-year olds) participated. Children expected higher levels of aggression during conflict when they thought that one or both participants in conflict were intoxicated versus sober. Further, higher levels of verbal versus physical interadult conflict were expected during the disputes. These findings build on the literature by demonstrating that elementary school age children and young adolescents exhibit expectancies that link the consumption of alcohol with increased verbal and physical aggression in marital arguments. These alcohol-aggression expectancies were robust and were evident in relation to either the man's or woman's perpetration of aggression against the spouse. Elucidation of factors that can influence associations between aggression and alcohol consumption are of importance and have broad implications for family functioning.     

Differential associations between maternal and paternal parenting and physical and relational aggression

A large number of studies have demonstrated that negative parenting is associated with greater levels of aggression (relational and physical) among school‐age children in Western cultures. However, the investigation of this association for children in non‐Western cultures is still in its infancy. The present study examines the associations between maternal and paternal parenting behaviours (conflict with the child, physical aggression toward the child and relational aggression toward the child) and forms of aggression, and explores gender differences in these associations among Japanese boys and girls. The participants were 130 fifth and sixth graders (age range: 10 to 12). Children reported maternal and paternal parenting behaviours, and classroom teachers assessed children's relational and physical aggression. Results show that boys and girls had more conflict, more relationally aggressive parenting experiences and more intimate relationships with their mothers than their fathers. Further, after controlling for grade and gender, greater maternal (but not paternal) relational aggression was associated with more peer‐oriented relational aggression for boys only and more peer‐oriented physical aggression for boys and girls. Greater paternal (but not maternal) conflict was predictive of more peer‐oriented physical aggression for boys and girls. The direction and strength of the associations between parenting behaviours and forms of aggression may be contingent upon the gender of the parent and the child. The findings are discussed from cultural, developmental and social perspectives, and implications for future research are discussed.     

Relationships among individualism--collectivism, gender, and ingroup/outgroup status, and responses to conflict: a study in China and the United States

Responses to conflict were studied in samples of college students from a highly collectivistic society (China, n = 207) and a highly individualistic society (United States n = 209). As predicted, the collectivistic society reported more conflict-reducing behaviors and less verbal or physical aggression. However, the effect of individualism/collectivism was moderated by both the ingroup/outgroup status of the target and gender of the participant. Chinese and US women did not differ on any measure. However, of the four groups, Chinese men reported the most conflict-reducing behaviors and the least physical aggression, whereas US men reported the fewest conflict-reducing behaviors and the greatest physical aggression. As predicted, conflict-reducing behaviors were more common in the ingroup condition and both verbal and physical aggression was more common in the outgroup condition. However, the latter were moderated by gender of the participant. US men reported greater physical aggression than any other group. Neither gender nor society had any effect on the level of indirect aggression. There were no gender or individualism/collectivism effects on indirect aggression. Observed gender effects were attributed to differences in how collectivistic and individualistic societies conceptualize masculinity. The effect sizes associated with the ingroup/outgroup condition were consistently and substantially larger than effect sizes associated with individualism/collectivism or gender.     

Effect of age and gender in the control of elbow flexion movements

In previous studies of rapid elbow movements in young healthy men, characteristic task-dependent changes in the patterns of muscle activation when movement speed or distance was varied have been reported. In the present study, the authors investigated whether age or gender is associated with changes in the patterns of muscle activity previously reported in young men. Arm movements of 10 healthy older and 10 healthy younger participants (5 men and 5 women in each group) were studied. Surface electromyograms (EMGs) from agonist (biceps) and antagonist (triceps) muscles, kinematic and kinetic parameters, as well as anthropometric and strength measures were recorded. All 4 groups of participants showed similar task- (distance or speed) dependent changes in biphasic EMG activity. Similar modulation of the initial rate of rise of the EMG, integrated agonist and antagonist EMG activity, as well as their relative timing were observed in all 4 groups. Those results suggest that older individuals of both genders retain the control strategies for elbow movements used by young individuals. Despite the qualitative similarities in the patterns of muscle activation, the men moved more quickly than the women, and younger participants moved more quickly than older participants. Those performance differences could not be explained in terms of differences in body size and strength alone.     

Effect of Age and Gender in the Control of Elbow Flexion Movements

In previous studies of rapid elbow movements in young healthy men, characteristic task-dependent changes in the patterns of muscle activation when movement speed or distance was varied have been reported. In the present study, the authors investigated whether age or gender is associated with changes in the patterns of muscle activity previously reported in young men. Arm movements of 10 healthy older and 10 healthy younger participants (5 men and 5 women in each group) were studied. Surface electromyograms (EMGs) from agonist (biceps) and antagonist (triceps) muscles, kinematic and kinetic parameters, as well as anthropometric and strength measures were recorded. All 4 groups of participants showed similar task- (distance or speed) dependent changes in biphasic EMG activity. Similar modulation of the initial rate of rise of the EMG, integrated agonist and antagonist EMG activity, as well as their relative timing were observed in all 4 groups. Those results suggest that older individuals of both genders retain the control strategies for elbow movements used by young individuals. Despite the qualitative similarities in the patterns of muscle activation, the men moved more quickly than the women, and younger participants moved more quickly than older participants. Those performance differences could not be explained in terms of differences in body size and strength alone.     

Are women really more aggressive than men in intimate relationships? Comment on Archer (2000)

J. Archer's (2000) conclusion that women engage in slightly more physical aggression than men in intimate relationships but sustain more injuries is reasonable in representative samples. However, his conclusions will provoke negative reactions because they do not fit with the data and belief that men are generally more aggressive than women. In addition, they are incompatible with observations of professionals who serve battered women. Basically, the meta-analytic conclusion about aggression cannot be generalized to samples of physically abusive men and their partners. Nonetheless, the studies reviewed by Archer provide convincing data that physical aggression by women must be taken seriously if there is a sincere desire to prevent partner abuse.     

The Role of Power and Gender in Anger Responses to Sexual Jealousy

Despite a growing interest in intimate conflict, little research has examined the variables that influence anger within an interpersonal context. Using the conflict topic of sexual jealousy, male and female undergraduate students were randomly assigned to high- or low-power conditions prior to listening to an audiotaped conflict between intimates. Analysis of participants' affective responses to the conflict indicated that in spite of no initial differences in anger before hearing the conflict, there was a significant difference between power conditions in postconflict ratings: low-power participants reported more anger than did high-power participants. Similarly, women reported more anger than did men after hearing the conflict despite no preconflict differences. The results are discussed in terms of the influence of power and gender expectations on the anger dynamics of intimate conflict. Of special interest is the extent to which perceptions of power or powerlessness, ostensibly unrelated to the conflict, can shape affective reactions to conflict.     

Effects of Gender, Age, and Education on Assertiveness in a Nigerian Sample

Two hundred fourteen (214) married persons, 101 men and 113 women aged 20–60, with at least high school education, participated in the study which investigated the effects of gender, age, and educational attainment on assertiveness among married persons in Nigeria. The Assertive Behavior Assessment scale (ABAS; Onyeizugbo, 1998 ) was used to measure assertiveness. It was hypothesized that persons with higher educational attainment will report more assertiveness than persons with lower educational attainment. Results supported the hypothesis. In addition, interactions between gender and age, and gender and educational attainment were found. Younger men reported more assertiveness than younger women whereas older women reported more assertiveness than older men. Also, women participants of lower educational attainment reported more assertiveness than their men counterparts whereas men of higher educational attainment reported more assertiveness than their women counterparts. Results of this study suggest that women in Nigeria may become more assertive with age.     

Gender differences in the intention to react to aggressive action at home and in the workplace

This study explored gender differences in escalatory tendencies, defined as individuals' intentions to react when faced with the prospect of potential aggression from others. The escalatory tendencies are based on an interaction unit of analysis, which is a proxy representation of behavioral intention from planned behavior theory. This study consists of a convenience sample of 264 male and female participants who were asked to report their escalatory tendencies following verbal and physical forms of aggression committed by various hypothetical offenders, including their intimate partner at home, as well as the men and women at work who are in higher, lower, or equal positions. The main findings support the assumptions that escalatory tendencies toward verbal aggression are higher than those toward physical aggression; that escalatory tendencies at work are higher toward lower status workers than toward those of higher status; that escalatory tendencies within the same gender are higher than between genders; and that women tend to escalate more against their spouses than do men. The findings emphasize the importance of studying aggression and escalatory tendencies in context. Aggr. Behav. 32:1–9, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Conflict resolution strategies of Hong Kong aggressive youth

Employing the Hong Kong Teenage Nonviolence Test, this study investigated 120 Hong Kong adolescents’ endorsement of various conflict resolution strategies as a function of gender and type of aggression. Results revealed all participants endorsed a moderately high level of using Empathy and Satyagraha (insistence on the truth) when faced with conflict. Moreover, the reactive-proactive aggressive youth reported a moderate degree of utilizing Physical-Psychological Violence to resolve conflict, while reactive aggressors and non-aggressors revealed a minimal amount of using this strategy. Additional studies are needed to further explore the relationship between aggression and various conflict resolution strategies. The findings can inform mental health professionals interested in designing programs to promote or reinforce protective or buffering factors (e.g., conflict resolution strategies) linked with proactive and reactive aggression.

     

Childhood Sexual Abuse and the Perpetration of Violence: The Moderating Role of Gender

This study sought to increase specificity in our knowledge of links among child sexual abuse (CSA), aggression, and physical intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration by criminal offenders, with particular interest in gender. Participants were 202 men and 72 women (N = 274), who were recruited from an urban pretrial supervision program. Women reported higher rates of CSA than men. After controlling for relevant covariates, CSA was associated with general aggression and severe IPV. We found a gender by CSA interaction; CSA was associated with aggression and severe IPV for women, but not men. Findings provide preliminary evidence that CSA impacts aggression and IPV perpetration differently for female offenders compared to male offenders and gender-specific treatment might be warranted in pretrial settings.     

Gender-Related Effects in Emotional Responding to Resolved and Unresolved Interpersonal Conflict

The current study examines gender differences in affective responding of 58 men and 52 women to various forms of resolved and unresolved interpersonal disputes. The participants were predominantly Caucasians from middle to upper middle class socioeconomic backgrounds. Resolved disputes were perceived as less angry and more okay and happy, and unresolved disputes evoked more anger than resolved disputes did, with continued fighting evoking more anger than did lapsing into the silent treatment. Women reported feeling more angry than did men during both forms of unresolved disputes, and more happy during arguments ending with either apologies or compromises. Men perceived the actors as more sad and reported feeling more okay during arguments than did women. The results extend findings from the children's literature regarding the effect of resolution on emotional responding, and illustrate important gender differences for adults.     

Qualitative and quantitative sex differences in self-reported aggressive behavioral characteristics

Aggressive behavioral characteristics were assessed in a large group of men and women by a self-report instrument, the Aggression Inventory. Significant gender differences appeared on four factors in which men reported more physical aggression and verbal aggression than did women. Further, men had higher scores on measures of impulsiveness and lack of patience than women, while women reported being more likely to avoid confrontation. In addition to these quantitative sex differences in self-reported behavior, factor analyses indicated qualitative differences by sex, wherein most of the variance for women centered on verbal aggression, while physical aggression was the first factor for men.     

Gender differences in intimate‐conflict initiation and escalation tendencies

According to gender motivation theory, men are driven by a desire to enhance their status; whereas, women are motivated by a desire to reduce risk, and the behavioral expressions of those motivations are context‐dependent. In order to test this theory in the context of intimate relationships, this study compared men's and women's escalatory tendencies in the initial development of intimate conflict. These tendencies were conceptualized in terms of four attributes: two attributes that represent response intention (decision and style) and two others that represent motivations for that intention (putting one's partner in his or her place and avoiding conflict). These attributes were measured in the context of five hypothetical situations. Each of those scenarios involved potential escalation of intimate conflict, following an intimate partner's aggressive verbal demand. The study involved a convenience sample of 403 male and female participants. The findings show that, in the initial steps of intimate‐conflict development, women tend toward escalation more than men. The findings also show that the escalatory tendency, as conceptualized and measured using the examined scenarios, corresponds to actual behavior exhibited in the resolution of common issues in the couples' lives. These findings reinforce gender motivation theory.

     

The Two Worlds of Aggression for Men and Women

The purpose of this research was to assess differences in the nature of physical aggression experienced by men and women. Random digit dialing with Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing was used to obtain a sample of 1,753 Ontario adults aged 18–60 (response rate of 67%). This method of sampling obtains respondents who reflect the ethnic and social diversity of Ontario. Respondents were asked to describe the most recent incident of physical aggression in which they had been personally involved during the past year. Most incidents reported by females were with a male opponent, usually a spouse, partner, or friend, did not involve alcohol consumption, resulted in high negative emotional impact, and pertained to jealousy. Incidents reported by males tended to be with other males, friends or strangers, in bars or public places, and involved four or more participants who had been drinking. Incidents involving only men had lower emotional impact on respondents and included more punching, threatening, and insulting behavior compared to incidents involving other gender combinations. These results are discussed in terms of the implications for violence generally and the importance of addressing male-to-male aggression and factors that foster this form of aggression.     

The maleness of violence in dating relationships: an appraisal of stereotypes

This study clarifies and adds to our understanding of how gender and gender orientation affect physical aggression in dating relationships. The stereotype of male violence assumes that men exclusively or nearly exclusively use abusive and violent behavior to manage conflict situations with an intimate partner, and that the more violent men will be more masculine. Data from a sample of 336 undergraduates indicate that the expected sex differences were not observed; among college students, physical aggression in dating relationships is not gender-specific. However, gender orientation was significantly related to courtship aggression. A more masculine and/or less feminine gender orientation and variations in relationship seriousness proved to be the two strongest predictors of both men's and women's involvement in courtship violence. Findings are discussed in terms of the masculine mystique and the male role norms in our culture's superstructure.This project was funded in part by a faculty research grant from Holy Cross College.     

A Pilot Study of Emotion Regulation Strategies in a Psychodrama Group of Psychiatric Patients

The researcher analyzed two emotion regulation strategies in a group of adults attending psychodrama psychotherapeutic group at an outpatient psychiatric clinic. The subjects, nine men and 15 women between the ages of 19 and 63 (with 14 subjects in young and 10 in middle adulthood) self-assessed their use of reappraisal and suppression using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire at the beginning of their treatment and at its end. They use reappraisal rarely to sometimes, regardless of their age, gender, and diagnosis. In the first assessment, the participants in middle adulthood and men reported using suppression more than young adults and women. During treatment, middle-aged adults and men succeeded to decrease their use of suppression significantly more than the young adults and women.     

A test of sex differences in aggressive response to hypothetical conflict situations

Male (n = 289) and female (n = 268) college students were administered the Leifer-Roberts Response Hierarchy (Reinisch Revision) to evaluate the utility of this measure in reflecting sex differences in self-described potential for aggressive response. The Response Hierarchy provides a retrospective estimate of where physical and verbal aggression reside in an individual's hierarchy of possible behavioral responses to hypothetical conflict situations in adolescence. A score is obtained for: (a) physical aggression, (b) verbal aggression, (c) nonaggressive coping, and (d) withdrawal. When asked to respond as they would have or did at age 13 years, verbal aggression was the most frequent response with no significant sex difference in mean scores. Men selected physical aggression significantly more often than women (p less than .001). Using the binomial effect size display (BESD) to illustrate the magnitude of the sex difference, 69% of the men would be classified as physically aggressive (above the median), whereas only 31% of the women would be so classified. It was concluded that the Response Hierarchy consistently demonstrates sex differences among college students in retrospectively reported preference for choosing physical aggression versus other coping strategies as a response to hypothetical interpersonal conflict situations of adolescence.     

Beliefs About Aggression in an Indian Sample

Studies of Western samples have shown that men tend to view aggression as an instrumental act, whereas women view it in expressive terms. The present Study investigated aggression in two studies. In Study 1 sample of 400 (both sexes, ages 16 and 26 years) young adults from the Indian state of Mizoram. Consistent with western findings, men showed higher instrumental and physical aggression than women, but they also showed higher expressive beliefs, contrary to previous findings. Both instrumental beliefs and physical aggression were higher at 16 than at 26 years of age. Since reliabilities of the scales were low, the questionnaires were translated into Mizo and presented to another similar sample of 201 participants (101 males; the same age groups as in Study 1). The pattern of mean differences and correlations were similar to Study 1, although the reliabilities increased only slightly. Overall, there were some similarities with western samples regarding beliefs about aggression, and sex and age differences in aggression, although the structures of responses appeared more complex.     

Gender and age differences in emotion regulation strategies and their relationship to depressive symptoms

We examined differences between men and women, and between young, middle and older age adults in emotion regulation strategies (rumination, suppression, reappraisal, problem-solving, acceptance, social support) and the relationships between these strategies and depressive symptoms. Women were more likely than men to report using several different emotion regulation strategies, and these gender differences were significant even after statistically controlling for gender differences in depressive symptoms. Use of most strategies decreased with age, with two exceptions: (1) use of suppression increased with age for women but not for men and (2) use of acceptance did not decrease with age for women. Use of maladaptive strategies was associated with more depressive symptoms in all age groups and both genders, yet, the use of adaptive strategies generally was not related to lower levels depressive symptoms across groups.