Citation

O'Keefe M. J. Child Fam. Stud. 1994; 3(3): 283-305.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF02234687

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Ethnicity/race has received relatively little attention in the spousal violence literature. Wheares some investigators have found that spousal abuse is more prevalent in minority populations, particularly among African-American families, other investigators found no racial/ethnic differences. The studies that do exist have focused primarily on prevalence rates of spousal violence and have not examined other family or contextual factors. Also, no studies have examined whether race/ethnicity impacts the emotional and behavioral adjustment of children exposed to marital violence. The purpose of the present study is to provide descriptive and analytic information on a sample of acially/ethnically diverse battered women and their children assessing their backgrounds, amount of violence, family functioning and child adjustment. Findings indicate few statistically significant racial/ethnic differences on numerous background and family functioning measures. The implications of the findings are discussed.