Violence in Divorce Prone Families

In order to conduct a study of family instability, a sample of 150 individuals were interviewed who were recently involved in a divorce action. The incidence of reported intrafamily violence was fifteen percent. The violent behavior was primarily delivered by husbands who were characteristically underachievers in the work/earner role and who were deficient in certain status characteristics relative to their wives. This was interpreted .as a special form of status inconsistency, whereby the superior ascribed status category of person (husband-male) was deficient in achieved status characteristics. This was taken as evidence that violence in the family may have an etiology similar to that in the larger society, with violent behavior most often involving the use of coercive force by members of a superordinate status at times when they find their stature threatened.