Wives’ Relative Income Production and Household Male Dominance: Examining Violence Among Asian American Enduring Couples*

Abstract

Abstract: This study integrates relative resource theory and cultural perspectives on husband‐to‐wife authority to examine male‐to‐female physical violence reported by Asian American wives in the National Latino and Asian American Survey. Findings indicated that the association between marital violence and male household dominance is complicated by women’s income relative to husbands’. We speculate that when husbands face threats on multiple levels to culturally determined masculine spheres of dominance, they are more likely to aggress against the perceived source of their status decline—thereby reaffirming one mode of dominance (physical). Practical implications of the findings are discussed.