Violent critical incidents in four types of violent interspousal relationships

Violent critical incidents (relationally important interactional sequences about which inferences can be made) in archival data from the 1975 first na tional survey of family violence were examined in four couple types: Agreea ble-Intimate, Conflictive-Intimate, Detached, and Diffident. The total numb er of violent behaviors in the critical incidents and six kinds of behavior s that occurred during the violent critical incidents (escalation, de-escal ation, reasoning, symbolic violence, less-severe physical violence, and sev ere physical violence) were examined. Descriptive statistics revealed diffe rences among the four couple types in all seven variables, and the chief fi nding of the study is that de-escalations, symbolic violence, and severe be ating violence can be statistically significantly discriminated by couple t ype. This finding supports the contention that seeming contradictions in th e literature (e.g., some research finding inequitable, husband-dominant rol e structure, and other research finding shifting power balances) occur beca use research samples contain different types of spousal relationships.