The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Relationships and Health 423

takes place in the context of intimate rela-

tionships—marital relationships, cohabiting

relationships, and dating relationships. In the

past, this area of research was referred to as

domestic abuse, referring to violence that oc-

curs within married couples. The subject of

violence within marriage came to the public’s

attention in the 1970s with the development of

the women’s movement. Shelters for battered

women appeared in the 1970s and 1980s. In

1985, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop pro-

claimed that violence against women was the

number-one health problem afflicting women.

More attention was brought to the subject of

battered women by the 1994 to 1995 trial of

O. J. Simpson for the murder of his wife,

Nicole Brown Simpson. Although Simpson

was acquitted of the murder, the evidence was

clear there had been a history of IPV in the

relationship.

In an effort to recognize IPV as a crime,

a number of states have enacted mandatory

arrest laws that require the police to arrest

the perpetrator when a violent incident is

reported (American Bar Association, 2007).

Unfortunately, there is some data that sug-

gest mandatory arrest laws increase rather

than reduce violence (Iyengar, 2008). Man-

datory arrest laws may inhibit people from

reporting violence and may provoke perpe-

trators. To date, the law is controversial.

I begin this section by examining the

incidence of IPV. Then I examine charac-

teristics of both perpetrators and victims of

IPV. I conclude by reviewing theories of IPV.

Some common myths about IPV are shown

in Table 11.2.

Incidence

It is difficult to calculate the incidence of

IPV, in part because abuse can be physical

or psychological. Researchers have relied on

both surveys as well as police and physician

Most of the studies that have linked

parenthood to marital satisfaction are cross-

sectional. This creates two problems for in-

terpretation. First, there may be a selection

bias. Perhaps people who are less happy

with their marriage are more likely to have

children (or people who are more happy

with their marriage refrain from becom-

ing parents). Second, it may be that couples

who have children are less likely to divorce,

meaning that the parenting couples contain

a greater number of unhappy marriages than

the nonparenting couples.

TAKE HOME POINTS

■ The effects of the parent role on women’s and men’s

health are not completely clear but there is little re-

search that shows benefits.

■ The mixed effects are due to the fact that so many fac-

tors qualify the effect of parenthood on health: ages

and number of children, whether the children live in the

home, income, and other roles that parents possess.

■ Parenthood is associated with a decline in marital sat-

isfaction, and the decline is larger among women than

men.

■ The negative effects of parenting on marital satisfaction

are due to restrictions on freedom, to a move toward a

more traditional division of labor, and to less time that

spouses spend together in non–child-focused activities.

Intimate Partner Violence

In this section of the chapter, I discuss how

marriage or romantic relationships influ-

ence health when the relationship becomes

violent. Intimate partner violence (IPV) refers

to psychological and physical violence that

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