Patriarchal Ideology and Wife-Assault: A Meta-Analytic Review

• NCJ Number: 161993
• Journal: Journal of Family Violence Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1996) Pages: 13-40
• Author(s): D B Sugarman; S L Frankel
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 18 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: University of New Hampshire, Family Research Laboratory
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Portions of this paper were presented at the 1993 annual convention of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, Ottawa.

Annotation

Using the framework of patriarchal theory, this meta- analytic review examined the predicted relation between wife assault and the maintenance of a patriarchal ideology.

Abstract

This relationship was evaluated by using three measures of patriarchal ideology: attitudes toward violence, gender attitudes, and gender schemas. Overall, assaultive husbands reported more positive attitudes toward marital violence and lower scores on masculine and feminine gender schema scales than nonassaultive husbands. Methodological factors accounted for the significant heterogeneity among the gender attitude effect estimates for men. An insignificant average effect in the males' gender attitude emerged in studies that used husbands' self- report data and case-control comparison groups. In contrast to men, assaulted wives held more feminine gender schema and tended to exhibit more liberal gender attitudes than nonassaulted wives across studies. These meta-analytic findings offer limited support for the ideological component of the patriarchal theory of wife assault and are discussed with respect to their theoretical and methodological implications. 4 tables and 98 references