Power, Control, and Marital Violence; Beliefs vs. Behavior. A Test of the Graham-Kevan Archer Measure

Abstract: We argue that Western conceptualizations of a common couple violence/intimate terrorism divide in domestic violence categories may be ill-suited to the Korean context because they are rooted in psychopathological explanations of control motivation (Holtzworth-Munroe & Stuart, 1994; Johnson, 2008). Control motivation in Korea may be more related to the cultural necessity of keeping face in a normatively patriarchal context rather than the attachment issues suggested by Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart (1994). To examine the power and control context of domestic violence in Korea, we implemented Graham-Kevan and Archer's (2003) measure on a sample of 77 Korean students at an elite university in Seoul. We used cluster analysis to separate the sample into high and low control cluster families. The high control cluster was associated with more domestic violence, more violence by the husband, more injuries from violence, and marginally more child abuse. Contrary to our prediction, being in the high control cluster appears to be a more important predictor of domestic violence than patriarchal beliefs. Implications and limitations are discussed

The incidence and impact of family violence on mental health among South Korean women: Results of a national survey

This representative national survey examined incidence of husband-to-wife violence in the past year, lifetime exposure to parental violence, and the relationships between victimization experiences of family violence and mental health among South Korean women (Nâ =â 1,079). The major findings were that incidence rate of husband-to-wife violence among Korean women was 29.5%, which was much higher than those of other nations, and that their experiences of physical violence by husbands in the last year and lifetime verbal abuse by parents had strong associations with the mental health of victims. The findings suggest that preventive intervention programs for male perpetrators as well as domestic violence victims with mental health problems and comprehensive interventions for Korean couples are urgently needed. In addition, parents should be educated about how to modify their children's behavior without physical punishment or verbal abuse. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Understanding Child Maltreatment in Hanoi: Intimate Partner Violence, Low Self-Control, and Social and Child Care Support

This study aimed to understand the role of low self-control, stress, depression, experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) and child abuse, and social support and child care support in the etiology of child abuse and neglect in Hanoi, Vietnam. The study estimated the prevalence of child maltreatment in a randomly selected, representative cluster sample of 269 Hanoi families. Among these families, 21% reported severe abuse of their children in the past year, 12% reported neglect. Low self-control was found to be strongly associated with child abuse. Life stressors were found to be strongly associated with neglect, but only indirectly with child abuse. Counter-intuitively, a positive interaction between social support and low self-control was found, suggesting that social support of parents low in self-control is associated with more maltreatment. Implications for research, intervention, and criminological theory are discussed. © 2013, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Child Abuse as a Catalyst for Wife Abuse?

This paper draws on Matza's (1964/1990) theory of deviance to propose that the father's current abuse of the child moderates the relationship between father's patriarchal beliefs and current perpetration of husband violence in South Korea. Drawing on Matza's concept of neutralizing beliefs, the paper argues that child abuse potentiates patriarchal beliefs, allowing husbands to extend rationalizations for child abuse to rationalizations for wife abuse, resulting in an interaction effect. The paper tests this hypothesized interaction effect using data from a nationally representative sample of 585 South Korean men. The paper then tests a competing alternative hypothesis that any type of violence (including violence outside the family) by the father acts as a moderator. Support is found for the child abuse as moderator hypothesis but not for the competing hypothesis. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media New York.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex