Using a Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation Framework to Predict Physical Aggression Trajectories in Newlywed Marriage

• Published in: Journal of consulting and clinical psychology 2008-10, Vol.76 (5), p.756-768
• Main Authors: Langer, Amie, Lawrence, Erika, Barry, Robin A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Adjustment; Adolescent; Adult; Aggression; Aggression - psychology; Aggressive Behavior; Aggressiveness; Analysis; Biological and medical sciences; Character; Chronic Stress; Couple and family; Couples; Cross-Sectional Studies; Family Conflict - psychology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Intimacy; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Marital Therapy; Marriage; Middle Aged; Midwestern United States; Models, Psychological; Outcomes of Treatment; Personality; Personality Inventory - statistics & numerical data; Personality Traits; Personality. Affectivity; Predictor Variables; Predictors; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychometrics; Risk Factors; Social psychology; Spouse Abuse - prevention & control; Spouse Abuse - psychology; Spouse Abuse - statistics & numerical data; Spouses; Stress; Stress Variables; Stress, Psychological - complications; Structural Equation Models; Therapy; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0022-006X; 1939-2117
• DOI: 10.1037/a0013254

The authors used a vulnerability-stress-adaptation framework to examine personality traits and chronic stress as predictors of the developmental course of physical aggression in the early years of marriage. Additionally, personality traits and physical aggression were examined as predictors of the developmental course of chronic stress. Data from 103 couples collected 4 times over the first 3 years of marriage were analyzed with an actor-partner interdependence model and structural equation modeling techniques. Personality traits of husbands predicted their own physical aggression and stress trajectories, as well as their wives' levels of stress and physical aggression. Personality traits of wives predicted their levels of stress and physical aggression and predicted changes in their physical aggression over time. Both husbands' and wives' changes in stress predicted changes in physical aggression over time. Implications for employment of a vulnerability-stress-adaptation model in the study of physical aggression and for improvement of the efficacy of therapies targeting physical aggression in intimate relationships are delineated.