Citation

Neidig PH, Friedman DH, Collins BS. J. Fam. Violence 1986; 1(3): 223-233.

Affiliation

Behavioral Science Associates, 29901 Beaufort, South Carolina, USA

Copyright

(Copyright © 1986, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF00978561

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Several of the attitudinal characteristics which are frequently attributed to abusive males were investigated in this study. Samples of male military personnel who had engaged in at least one serious episode of interspousal violence in the previous 6 months were administered measures of the following variables: (1) Attitudes toward self -- The Coopersmith Self-The Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory; (2) Attitudes toward others -- The Generalized Expectations of Others Questionnaire, a short form of The Attitudes Toward Women Scale and The Mehrabian and Epstein Empathy Scale; and (3) Dogmatism -- The Rokeach D Scale and the Revised Authoritarianism Index, When compared to matched control groups of nonabusive males, statistically significant differences were found only for The Self-esteem Inventory and one item of the Generalized Expectations of Others Questionnaire. It is concluded that many of the attitudinal characteristics of abusive males reported in the clinical literature may not be a significant component in the etiology of spouse abuse.