Family Violence and Adolescents' Perceptions of Outcomes of Family Conflict

Abstract

VioLit summary: OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study by Martin et al. was to identify the relationship between both verbal and physical family violence and (1) the adolescent's perception of the family conflict outcomes; (2) the amount of satisfaction the reports to have with his/her relationships within the family; and (3) the amount of control the perceives in his/her own life after a disagreement with his/her parents. The article contains no discussion of theory or theoretical rationale, nor were any specific hypotheses outlined. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional design with the family as a unit of analysis was employed family (n=181). Randomly selected from two communities in Kansas were primarily white, middle-class, intact with at least one member. One community was rural (n=83: 47 males, 36 females, average age 15.1), the other urban (n=98: 53 males, 45 females, average age 15.8). Determining the urban sample involved a two-stage random selection using first precinct data, then selecting within the precincts. Data were collected in 1977-78. To determine differences between the rural and urban sample, the co-variance matrices of the two samples were compared. The means of the variables between rural and urban samples did not differ in general. Only for compliance with father was there a significant (p=.041) difference on individual variable. Therefore, rural and urban samples were combined in the analysis. Variables were: 1) Family violence (during past year) 2) Family violence outcomes: a) Resolution of differences b) Satisfaction with relationship with parents c) Control over life d) Satisfaction with parents' relationship w/each other e) Satisfaction with adolescent's relationships with siblings f) Discouragement g) Ease of apology h) Anger toward parental behavior i) Confusion about parental behavior j) Knowledge of parental feelings k) Compliance toward father and l) Compliance toward mother. Conflict Tactics (CT) scales were administered to the adolescents to determine the level of verbal and physical violence in each family. The extent of family violence in the year preceding the interview was reported. Reliability and validity information of CTS for this study were published in Schumm et.al. (1982b). The adolescents' perceptions of the family violence outcomes were measured by 12 items, which were part of a larger questionnaire. The authors present a univariate comparison of means (F test) by variable (type of family violence) according to whether the mother or father was the perpetrator. Two discriminant analyses were performed with the SPSS discriminant routine with Wilks's stepwise selection: 1) adolescents' perceptions of their father's violence, and 2) their perception of their mother's violence. FINDINGS/DISCUSSION: Straus's CT scales suggest two types of family violence--physical and verbal. Each parent was seen by the as being 1) nonviolent, 2) verbally violent, or 3) both verbally and physically violent. The findings suggest that families with nonviolent fathers and mothers are able to resolve conflicts more effectively than in which either verbal violence or both verbal and physical violence are used (p.170). It was also found that adolescent compliance seemed to be generally unrelated to family violence. Thus, violence did not appear to be effective control strategy (p.170). The authors also found an association between parental violence and anger on the part of the adolescent, specifically, adolescents' satisfaction decreased as the level of family violence increased for mothers' violence (p.170). AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS: The authors suggested that future research might prove profitable in the more detailed comparison of verbally violent and verbally and physically violent to explore why some resort to intermediate form of violence but stop short of physical violence. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado) KW - Kansas KW - Family Environment KW - Family Conflict KW - Family Relations KW - Interparental Conflict KW - Interparental Violence KW - Domestic Violence Perceptions KW - Witnessing Violence Effects KW - Witnessing Spouse Abuse KW - Spouse Abuse Perceptions KW - Juvenile Witness KW - Juvenile Perceptions KW - Children of Battered Women KW - Violence Against Women KW - Partner Violence