Gender and Violence in Dyadic Relationships

In responses to the questions of whether individual distress, severity of violence, and dyadic adjustment vary according the gender, we explored how gender and reported level of physical violence relate to relational and individual adjustment in males and females. Using data from a clinical sample of 604 adults, 2 × 3, between-subjects MANOVA indicated that when the respondent is the perpetrator of physical violence, ratings of individual and dyadic distress are significantly greater for cases classified as severely violent in comparison to no and mild violence cases. We also found that when the respondent is the victim of physical violence, females reported greater individual distress in comparison to males across all three levels of violence.