Economic Distress and Intimate Violence: Testing Family Stress and Resources Theories

2002/08/01 by Greer Litton Fox, Michael L. Benson, Alfred A. DeMaris +2 · 268 citations
Health Professions · Medicine · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Clinical psychology #Demographic economics #Demography #Distress #Domestic violence #Economic growth #Economic security #Economics #Environmental health #Feeling #Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics #Homelessness and Social Issues #Human factors and ergonomics #Intimate Partner and Family Violence #Logistic regression #Medicine #Odds #Poison control #Population #Psychology #Social psychology #Socioeconomic status #Sociology

paper · doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2002.00793.x

published in Journal of Marriage and the Family 64(3), 793-807 (Wiley)

openalex publication_date 2002/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

Hypotheses shaped by family stress and resource theories about the impact of household economic indicators on the risk of violence against women in intimate relationships are tested with a data set built from the initial two waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) and the 1990 U.S. Census. Measures of employment status, job conditions, and economic well‐being for male and female partners are examined with logistic regression analyses as predictors of the odds of male‐to‐female intimate violence. Results underline the importance that partners attach to each other's work performance and their feelings of financial well‐being in assessing whether job holding and household income serve to elevate or reduce the risk of intimate partner violence toward women.

Citations

• Community Structure and Crime: Testing Social-Disorganization Theory
• Research on Domestic Violence in the 1990s: Making Distinctions
• Patriarchal Terrorism and Common Couple Violence: Two Forms of Violence against Women

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