Anger, Control, and Intimate Partner Violence in Young Adulthood

A common theme is that intimate partner violence is not about anger, but about power and control, so prior research has focused either on respondents' or partners' controlling behaviors. For the current study, analyses relied on interview data collected at waves 1 and 5 of a longitudinal study (Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study; n = 928) of adolescent and young adult relationships. Results indicate that after controlling for traditional predictors, both respondent and partner control attempts and measures of anger (including a measure of relationship-based anger) contributed significantly to the odds of reporting perpetration. Further, these patterns did not differ by gender, indicating areas of similarity in the relationship and emotional processes associated with variations in men's and women's IPV reports. (Publisher abstract modified)