Adding Insult to Injury: Development and Initial Validation of the Partner-Directed Insults Scale
Violence and Victims › Vol. 21 Nbr. 6, December 2006
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Summary
Women who are verbally abused by their intimate male partners suffer serious mental health consequences and often experience physical violence in their relationship. Despite the importance of studying verbal abuse, no previous research has investigated the specific content of the insults men use to derogate their partners. We present the development and initial validation of a new measure designed to assess the specific content of insults used by men against their intimate partners. In a preliminary study, we used feedback from battered women, along with a review of the relevant literature, to identify specific insults for inclusion in the Partner-Directed Insults Scale (PDIS). We administered the PDIS to a sample of United States participants (Study 1) and a sample of New Zealand participants (Study 2), allowing for a cross-national investigation of the specific insults that men use to derogate their partners. The results demonstrate the practical need for such a scale and provide evidence for the discriminant validity of the PDIS by documenting that men's use of insults predicts their use of controlling behaviors and physical violence.
Women who are verbally abused by their intimate male partners suffer serious mental health consequences and often experience physical violence in their relationship. Despite the importance of studying verbal abuse, no previous research has investigated the specific content of the insults men use to derogate their partners. We present the development and initial validation of a new measure designed to assess the specific content of insults used by men against their intimate partners. In a preliminary study, we used feedback from battered women, along with a review of the relevant literature, to identify specific insults for inclusion in the Partner-Directed Insults Scale (PDIS). We administered the PDIS to a sample of United States participants (Study 1) and a sample of New Zealand participants (Study 2), allowing for a cross-national investigation of the specific insults that men use to derogate their partners. The results demonstrate the practical need for such a scale and provide evidence for the discriminant validity of the PDIS by documenting that men's use of insults predicts their use of controlling behaviors and physical violence.See the full content of this document
Extract
Adding Insult to Injury: Development and Initial Validation of the Partner-Directed Insults Scale
Abuse of women by men plagues many intimate relationships. Broadly speaking, this abuse can occur as physical or nonphysical abuse. Physical abuse includes acts such as hitting, kicking, and choking. Nonphysical abuse includes psychological and emotional abuse, often occurring in the form of verbal insults (Follingstad, Rutledge, Berg, Hause, & Polek, 1990; O'Leary & Maiuro, 2001). Much previous research has addressed physical abuse of women by their intimate partners (see Arriaga & Oskamp, 1999, for a review) as well as several forms of psychological and emotional abuse (see O'Leary & Maiuro, 1999, 2001, for reviews). Less research has specifically addressed verbal abuse, however. Nonetheless, a number of important findings have emerged. It has been documented, for example, that the targets of verbal abuse by intimate partners suffer negative health consequences (O'Leary, 1999), that physical abuse often accompanies verbal abuse (Gondolf, Heckert, & Kimmel, 2002; Wilson, Johnson, & Daly, 1995), and that verbal abuse early in a relationship predicts subsequent spousal abuse (Schumacher & Leonard, 2005). Moreover, studies examining components and factors of psychological abuse have found that components associated with insults (such as criticism, ridicule, and denigration) have stronger associations with physical abuse than do other components (Murphy & Hoover, 1999; Sullivan, Parisian, & Davidson, 1991). These findings are valuable, but missing from the literature is an examination of the specific content of verbal abuse. What are these men saying to their partners?
The primary objective of the current research was to design a m...See the full content of this document
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