Citation

Medina KL, Schafer J, Shear PK, Armstrong TG. J. Fam. Violence 2004; 19(6): 379-389.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10896-004-0683-8

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

There is strong evidence that men and women do not agree about the occurrence of intimate partner violence (IPV). However, few studies to date have attempted to test explanatory models of violence concordance. One possible mechanism underlying disagreement is cognitive impairment, specifically, memory dysfunction. The principal goal of this study is to test whether memory ability and overall cognitive functioning is related to disagreement about the most recent occurrence of IPV within the dyad. Data were collected from both partners of cohabiting or married couples. The male partners were polysubstance abusers within their first year of abstinence. Results indicate that the men and womens memory ability, problem solving, disinhibition, and verbal ability are significantly related to disagreement about the most recent IPV episode. Thus, cognitive ability, particularly memory ability, of the participants should be considered when assessing the accuracy of measuring IPV among individuals diagnosed with polysubstance abuse. Other implications are discussed.