Are Life Stressors Associated with Marital Violence?

The current study examined the link between different conceptualizations of life stressors and physical violence against spouses. Life stressors were measured in several different ways to test whether stressor frequencies and perceived impacts, life domains of stressors (i.e., loss, threat), and the nature of stressors (i.e., occupational, interpersonal) are correlates of men's and women's moderate and severe violence. Also explored were potential mediators and moderators of the stress - violence relationship. Community and clinic couples participated in this study. Results indicated that occupational and loss stressors were associated with men's violence whereas a wider array of stressors were associated with women's violence. In addition, stressors only discriminated between violent and nonviolent men whereas some stressors also discriminated between moderately and severely violent women. Depressive symptoms moderated the association between stressor impact and violence such that impact and women's violence were significantly correlated for women with elevated depressive symptoms. Results are discussed in light of theoretical and clinical implications.