Abstract
Twelve married couples court-ordered to attend a violence reduction treatment program completed self-report measures of anger, social problem-solving skills, and strategies employed for dealing with high-conflict situations. They were subsequently videotaped while discussing 3 different scenarios. Three raters independently coded the videotapes for the use of effective and ineffective communication strategies used by the participants. Aggregate reliability estimates were acceptable. No gender-based differences were found on the self-report measures or the communication skill ratings. When couples discussed low-conflict situations use of effective skills exceeded use of ineffective skills, and when couples discussed high-conflict problems use of ineffective skills exceeded use of effective skills. Implications for treatment of spousal assault are presented.
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Ronan, G.F., Dreer, L.E., Dollard, K.M. et al. Violent Couples: Coping and Communication Skills. Journal of Family Violence 19, 131–137 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOFV.0000019843.26331.cf
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOFV.0000019843.26331.cf