Investigating three explanations of women’s relationship aggression

This study investigated explanations of women’s partner aggression in a sample of 358 women. Women completed measures of physical aggression, control, and fear. Three explanations of women’s partner aggression were explored: (a) that its use is associated with fear, (b) that it is reciprocal, and (c) that it is coercive. Each explanation received partial support, with multivariate analysis showing that collectively they explained significant proportions of the variance in women’s self-reported use of physical aggression toward their male partners. These results indicate that women’s physical aggression toward male partners cannot be understood using a unitary explanation. There is a research tradition that assumes that women are only victims of relationship violence and never or rarely perpetrators (e.g., Dobash, Dobash, Cavanagh, & Lewis, 1998). Research on community samples, in particular th