The Dark Side of Partner Support: Implications for Support Recipients’ Perpetration of Intimate Partner Aggression
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Wong, Jennifer Denise
- Graduate Program:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 07, 2021
- Committee Members:
- Steffany Fredman, Major Field Member
Amy Marshall, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Ginger Moore, Major Field Member
Denise Solomon, Outside Unit & Field Member
Kristin Buss (She/Her), Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- Partner Support
Intimate Partner Violence
Social Support
Couples
Low-income Parents
Gender differences
Aggression - Abstract:
- Receipt of social support from one’s partner is important for couples’ relationships and for individuals’ psychological and physical health outcomes. However, receipt of partner support that differs from the type and/or amount of support that is desired is associated with detrimental effects on relationships. This study is the first to examine whether inadequacies in the type and/or amount of support received predict support recipients’ perpetration of intimate partner aggression (IPA), and whether aggressive conflicts arise due to concerns about partner support. I examined whether general perceptions of inadequate support receipt primarily predicted IPA use within conflict incidents that were specifically about the receipt of partner support. Fifty couples (N = 95 participants) with children aged 3-5 years rated their perceptions of partner support and were interviewed about recent incidents of IPA. For each incident of IPA, partners described the conflict topic and IPA acts perpetrated. Conflict topics were coded for the (under- and over-) receipt of distinct types of partner support. I found gender differences in the association between partner support receipt and IPA use, which varied depending on type of support and conflict context. Women receiving less support than desired generally used less IPA; however, when the conflict was specifically about a type of support that they lacked, women used more IPA in these specific conflicts. Men receiving less support than desired they generally used less IPA; however, when men received less esteem/emotional support than desired, they used more IPA regardless of conflict context. Relationship education programs and couples therapists may benefit from incorporating information about how deficits in partner support receipt impact support recipients’ use of IPA in different ways for women and men to prevent the occurrence of IPA stemming from concerns about partner support.