Research shows that "Women initiate and engage in intimate partner violence (IPV) just as often as men," according to Murray Straus, professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire. The results of a recent study and more than 100 others in Great Britain, Canada and the USA show a "symmetry of aggression" between the sexes.

Straus is taking part in a host of presentations and symposia at the XV World Meetings of the International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA). Some 300 researchers, front-line workers and policy makers have been attending the three-day event taking place at McGill University, in Leacock Building from July 29 to 31.

"Current prevention efforts are almost all based on the assumption that IPV is perpetrated almost exclusively by men," continues Straus. Among other things, the assumption that men are the primary perpetrators of assaults stems from the fact that 90% of cases of assaults and murders outside of the family are committed by males perpetrators. "It is easy to assume that this must also apply to IPV," he says.

Meanwhile women are picking fights and participating in them. However, cautions Straus, "It is important to remember that a punch is not a punch. It depends on who is receiving it. Women are generally more physically vulnerable. They get injured seven times as often as men and they are much more likely to be physically, psychologically and economically injured by partner assaults." He believes that the best way to protect women is to direct intimate partner violence treatment programmes towards both them and their partners to develop healthy strategies in avoiding the cycle of violence.

Risk Factors

In her research, Jacqueline White, Professor of Psychology and Editor of "Psychology of Women Quarterly", addresses one of the major catalyzing factors in the cycle of violence: witnessing family violence during childhood. She followed a group of students from the time they were 18 through four years of college and found that "If there was violence at home there will be violence in their adolescent relationships."

"The home is a training ground," says White. Later on, "Violent adolescent relationships increased the likelihood that the violence would be carried into adulthood. This is true for both women and men. There was also a strong relationship between perpetrators of physical and sexual assault."

White notes that if for some reason during adolescence young people are able to escape these victim-perpetrator relationships they fared much better. But other kids "grow up actually thinking that hitting is part of caring." Adolescence emerged as the critical formative period for those who had witnessed violence during childhood. So White is calling for programmes to help teens overcome their childhood trauma. Programmes that are stringently evaluated and involve peer groups. "If you can engage the peer group, you can change the social norm," she says.

Linda Pagani, Associate Professor at the Ecole de psycho1ducation at the University of Montr1al is working to understand the critical period of adolescence and has found that "A past history of aggressive behaviour in childhood, substance abuse by teens or parents, little parent-child involvement, and verbal and corporal punishment (with the goal of inflicting pain) all appeared to contribute to aggression towards parents."

Pagani used the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Kindergarten Children to test theories about classic profiles for children at risk of becoming dangerously violent. No significant gender splits were found in the behaviour of 15 year-old girls and boys. But there were substantial differences in how mothers and fathers were treated by their children.

Pagani found that mothers seemed to take the brunt of abuse from children. "Mothers engage in more limit-setting and supervision, making them more likely targets of adolescent reactive aggression than fathers," she says. Teens were more likely to become aggressive towards their fathers if they received harsh verbal punishments from them than if they were physically punished.

"There is a gradual increase in the risk of violence against parents through childhood, peaking at age 15 and diminishing after age 17, especially for sons against mothers," says Pagani. The stakes can be high as other studies show that unchecked violence lead to future partner violence or parricide (killing one's parents). "Clearly, overwhelmed parents need early identification for problem children along with training and support to learn how to handle them," she says.

"In the majority of all these cases, violence towards parents and partners can be traced back to early childhood," comments Professor Richard E. Tremblay, the World Meeting's President and a Canada Research Chair at the University of Montréal. "Aggression does not suddenly erupt in our teens or when conflicts arise in a couple. All humans make spontaneous use of physical aggression very early in life - and it is then that we learn to control our violent reactions. Unfortunately, those who don't learn alternatives to physical aggression tend to use it later against their parents and partners."

Tremblay says we need to help young children learn that might does not make right in settling conflicts. We also need to create learning, leisure and work environments for young and old that do not trigger our primal rage.

The International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA) is a society of scholars and scientists interested in the scientific study of aggression and violence. The Society is both international and interdisciplinary and meets every other year on alternating continents. The Society comprises over 250 members from several dozen countries with specialties in psychology, psychiatry, physiology, sociology, anthropology, animal behaviour, criminology, political science, pharmacology and education.

ISRA's biennial conference is hosted this year by the Research Unit on Children's Psycho-Social Maladjustment, an Interdisciplinary Research Centre funded by the Université de Montréal, Université Laval and McGill University.

Montreal, July 31 /CNW/

http://www.newswire.ca/releases/July2002/31/c9186.html

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