The relationship between sex role attitudes and attitudes supporting marital violence

Counselors' Attributions of Blame Toward Female Survivors of Battering

“…Observer factors shown to increase attributions of blame include just world beliefs, history of violence in family of origin, attitudes toward women, ambivalent sexism, gender, and gender role attitudes, among others. Characteristics of the survivor that increase attributions of blame include race (Esqueda & Harrison, 2005;Finn, 1986;Pierce & Harris, 1993;Willis et al, 1996), where African American women are blamed at greater rates than White women; and alcohol use (Harrison & Esqueda, 2000;Reddy, Knowles, Mulvany, McMahon, & Freckelton, 1997), where those who have been using alcohol are blamed at greater rates than those who are sober. Also shown to increase levels of blame are intimacy level of the relationship (dating vs. married; Langhinrichsen-Rohling et al, 2004;Willis et al, 1996), suggesting that women who are unmarried are blamed more than those women who are married; provocation by the victim (Harris & Cook, 1994;Pierce & Harris, 1993), where women who have done something to "provoke" the batterer are blamed more than those who did nothing to initiate the violence; and the victim's reaction to the abuse (Capezza & Arriaga, 2008), where women who do something to retaliate (such as yelling) are blamed at greater rates as well.…”

“…In an early study of attitudes toward IPV, Finn (1986) Likert-type scale. Results indicated that the majority of students surveyed held egalitarian sex role attitudes and disapproved of marital violence, although male participants held significantly more traditional sex role attitudes than female participants and were also more likely to hold attitudes endorsing the use of force in marriage.…”

“…They recommended examining attributions of blame among police officers, medical personnel, and jury members (Kristiansen & Giulietti, 1990), but did not consider the role of mental health professionals in helping survivors of abuse. Additionally, previous research suggested examining the influence of gender role attitudes rather than gender (Finn, 1986) due to their relationship with the acceptance of the use of physical force in relationships, regardless of gender. This study failed to recognize the importance of gender role attitudes, rather than simply gender, when assessing for attributions of blame.…”

“…Finn (1986) suggested the importance of examining additional variables related to both the actor and observer in order to gain a better understanding of the attribution formation process toward IPV and women who have been battered. Putting aside variables already determined to influence attributions such as gender role attitudes (Willis et al, 1996) and just world beliefs (Kristiansen & Giulietti, 1990), Harrison and Esqueda (2000) examined the role of alcohol in attributions of battering, as well as the role of race in attribution formation.…”

Exploring Battered Mexican-Origin Women's Help-Seeking Within Their Sociocultural Contexts

“…Research has established the relationship of male dominance to family violence (Dobash & Dobash, 1979;Straus, 1973), and provided evidence that men who hold more traditional sex role attitudes or patriarchal beliefs are more likely to endorse the use of physical abuse in marital relationships (Finn, 1986;Koval, Ponzetti, & Cate, 1982).…”