Battered wives: A controlled study of predisposition

The possibility that women who are battered by their husbands are predisposed to this treatment is examined in a controlled study of 30 such women and 30 control subjects. A number of father-related items distinguished between the two groups: in the battered group fathers had more mental illness, were more violent and tended to be more strict. Battered women more often witnessed violence by their husband to others prior to marriage. All participants were rated for hostility using the Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire (HDHQ). Both groups emerged as significantly and globally more hostile than a group of normal subjects. Battering is a dramatic word borrowed from the now well-known battered-baby syndrome which first came into prominence in the early 1960s. The word implies thorough, repeated physical abuse which includes bruises, fractures and dislocations caused by the fist and the clutching hand, by kicking and by the use of sbarp and blunt instruments. Also included are burning and scalding and strangulation attempts. Battering therefore means much more than an isolated slap or punch and in the present study serious assault was as common as in other series (Fonseka, 1974; Gayford, 1975). Repeated psychological trauma is not included since one would need to incorporate such a wide variety of cases as would require separate consideration. “Wife ” must clearly include any woman whether a legal wife or not who lives together with a man. To include only those who are legally married would exclude many who are subject to the most violent assault. We have followed what has become normal practice and included a de facto relationship which has lasted at least twelve months. For the sake of descriptive simplicity the term “marriage ” will here include such a relationship and the term “husband” will include the man involved therein