Need for attention, frustration are causes of female aggression in intimate relationships

According to the Centers for Disease Control, nearly 5.3 million intimate partner victimizations occur each year to U.S. women ages 18 and older. This violence results in almost two million injuries and nearly 1,300 deaths. However, research shows that instances of minor aggression in relationships, such as hitting and slapping, are relatively equal across men and women. Now, a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher has completed a study investigating women’s use of aggression in intimate relationships.

"One of the most fascinating controversies in the field of intimate violence revolves around the rates and consequences of women’s use of aggression against the men they love," said Loreen Olson, assistant professor of Communication, who conducted the study with Sally Lloyd, professor of Family Studies at Miami University in Ohio.

To study how women defined initiation of aggression and what motives they had for behaving aggressively, Olson and Lloyd interviewed 25 women who had used aggression during conflicts with their romantic partners. Olson defined aggression as any malevolent act intended to or perceived to have the intention of hurting another person. The women reported they initiated aggression in 54 percent of the conflicts they discussed, although they varied in how they defined initiation. Some believed initiating aggression meant being angry, while others thought that bringing up the conflict issues or persistently asking the partner to engage verbally was a form of aggression.

Of the 87 aggressive conflicts the women identified in interviews, 55 contained only verbal aggression, five contained only physical aggression and 27 contained both. When Olson asked the women to describe who initiated the aggression, she found that the concept of initiation is often linked to the dynamics of conflict and communication in the relationship.

"The results of the study highlight the complexity of the women’s sense-making processes involved with the initiation of aggression," Olson said. "Instead of defining initiation in terms of striking the first blow, the women indicated more nuanced understandings of the concept and often embedded their description of 'initiation of aggression' within ongoing relational or conflict dynamics."

Olson and Lloyd also identified 12 motives for female aggression. On average, the women gave more than three reasons for why aggression was used in a specific conflict. Some of the most common motives for aggression were psychological factors, rule violations, and to gain attention and compliance. Olson found that many women justified their aggression by saying such behavior was the only way to get their partners’ attention or to get the men to listen or acknowledge them.

"After many attempts at a calm, more rational approach, the women described becoming frustrated with the continued avoidance patterns displayed by their partners," Olson said. "Using aggressive tones or even slapping their partners on the upper torso were efforts to get their partners’ attention."

The study will be published in the October edition of the academic journal Sex Roles.

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Loreen Olson
Department of Communication

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