A Biosocial Perspective on the Relationship of Sexual Infidelity to Intimate Partner Violence Focusing on Socioeconomic Factors, Cohabiting Unions, and Children

Abstract

Data from the National Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) were used to analyze relationships between sexual infidelity and intimate partner violence (IPV). A biosocial perspective was advanced and compared to criminological theories. General estimating equations, fit for repeated observations of binary outcomes, were used to estimate the impact on the odds of IPV changing between waves 3 and 4 of the data in response to changes in experiences with infidelity. Analyses suggest that socioeconomic factors of educational attainment and employment may serve as mitigating variables in the perpetration of IPV. Men were more likely to cheat, but less likely to perpetrate IPV when employed full-time. Women were more likely than men to report perpetrating IPV but were less likely to respond violently to infidelity as their educational attainment level increased. Cohabiting and children increased the risk of IPV for men and women and were not found to modify the link between infidelity and IPV for either sex. Findings were largely consistent with the expectations of a biosocial perspective but also offered mixed support for criminological theories.