Romantic conflict narratives and associations with psychological relationship aggression in emerging adult couples

This cross-sectional study aimed to understand how emerging adult couples interpreted relationship conflicts, and whether such meaning making was associated with psychological relationship aggression and moderated by gender. We specified the I Cubed model of relationship aggression to examine how in the context of recounting relationship conflicts, the impellance factors of anger and break-up anxiety might increase and the inhibition factor of perspective taking might decrease the likelihood of relationship aggression. Each partner in 126 couples was interviewed separately about their unmet relationship needs. Narrative-based measures of impellance and inhibition were obtained as well as self-reported psychological relationship aggression and satisfaction. Although gender was not a moderator, there was some support for associations of impellance and inhibition factors with aggression. Extending prior work using couple observations and diary methods, we found that interpreting conflict events in terms of anger and perspective taking was related to relationship aggression while controlling for relationship satisfaction. Consistent with the I Cubed model, there were actor effects such that anger ratings were an impellance factor that increased and perspective taking was an inhibition factor that decreased the likelihood of aggression. Our findings suggest that narrating past conflicts related to unmet needs is a task that involves the management of anger associated with more relationship aggression. The efficacy of relationship education programs for emerging adult couples might be improved by focusing on skills to decrease anger and facilitate perspective taking.

Attitudes About Forgiveness and Leaving a Relationship: The Context of Relationship Aggression

The present study examines participant attitudes regarding whether a victim of IPV should forgive an offending partner and whether they should stay or leave a violent relationship. A total of 562 participants completed the study, which entailed responding to factorial vignettes online. Participants were primarily heterosexual, female, non-Latino, and White, with an average age of 21.75. Using logistic regressions, participants were significantly more likely to think the victim should forgive the perpetrator if the perpetrator was female and for less severe acts of aggression. Multinomial logistic regressions found that respondents were significantly less likely to state “yes” or “it depends,” compared to “no,” as to whether the victim should leave the relationship when the aggression was more severe and were more likely to say a male victim should stay in a violent relationship than a female victim. Qualitative analyses found three main themes regarding whether a victim should forgive: (1) context matters; (2) forgiveness is best … with caveats; and (3) questioning how often violence had occurred. With regard to whether a victim should leave an aggressive relationship, two main themes emerged: (1) situation matters … especially the relationship context and (2) questioning whether the violence had occurred before. This study provides insight into attitudes, by those external to a couple, regarding forgiveness and leaving a relationship after an instance of relationship aggression and has implications for both practitioners and policymakers. The constructed views about leaving a relationship may spill over into decisions regarding whether to implement policy surrounding IPV. Practitioners should also be cognizant of the varying definitions of forgiveness when working with clients who have experienced IPV as a practitioner’s definition of forgiveness may not necessarily align with a client’s definition.

CORRELATION OF MISSING OUT (FOMO), ANXIETY AND AGGRESSION OF YOUNG ADULTS

Social media now has become integral part of human race. It not only helps in knowing about the opportunity one has online but also offline. On the upside, these resources provide multiple opportunities for interaction; on the downside, they often give us more than required amount of options that often lead to confusion and distress and have practical restrictions. The use of social media is so prevalent that it is leading society towards cyber distress. Thus, this study attempts to study the correlation between FoMo, Social Media Addiction, Personal Relationship, Aggression Factor one, two, three and four and Anxiety. A total of 600 sample population was selected for this purpose and a total of 60 sample (30- Neutral group and 30- High score Group) for study of brain electrical wave pattern. The tool used in this study was FoMo and Social Media Addiction Questionnaire, Personal Relationship Questionnaire, Buss and Perry aggression scale and Zung Anxiety scale. The result reveals that there is a positive significant correlation between FoMo, Social Media Addiction and Psychological Factors at (p<0.001 and p<0.005).

Neighborhood Income Inequality and Adolescent Relationship Aggression: Results of a Nationally Representative, Longitudinal Study

Adolescent relationship aggression (ARA) is a prevalent public health issue with myriad adverse health outcomes. Experts suggest that a research focus on individual- and family-level risk factors for ARA has been too limited, proposing that research on the “outer layers” of the social-ecological model, including community-level risk factors, may hold promise for the development of interventions targeting ARA. This study assessed the longitudinal association between one community-level risk factor—income inequality—and ARA victimization and perpetration. The study also examined variations of this association by race/ethnicity, income, and/or sex. This study is based on 723 participants (351 male and 372 female participants) from the Survey on Teen Relationships and Intimate Violence (STRiV). We assessed data across two waves (2013 and 2016). Logistic regression models were used to assess the association between neighborhood income inequality and both ARA victimization and perpetration. We included interaction terms to assess whether these associations varied by race/ethnicity and/or income, and we stratified analyses by sex. We did not detect associations between income inequality and ARA victimization or perpetration in the overall sample. However, for female participants from families with more income, living in a neighborhood with more income inequality was associated with increased risk of ARA victimization (odds ratio [OR] = 1.163; p < .05). More affluent, compared with less affluent, adolescent girls in mixed-income neighborhoods may be at increased risk of ARA victimization.

Aggression in the Context of Partner Threat: The Role of Trauma Exposure

Trauma-related biased perception of threat, typically defined in terms of physical danger or harm, is associated with intimate partner aggression perpetration. Yet, it is unclear if such threat (a) functionally motivates aggression and (b) includes diverse forms of threat. Theory and limited research suggest that threats of rejection/abandonment and social dominance may be two distinct functional precipitants of aggression among trauma-exposed individuals. Sixty-four heterosexual couples (N = 128 individuals) selected for elevated symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder in either partner were observed during conflict discussions. Small correlations between men's and women's engagement in threats of rejection/abandonment and social dominance suggest that they reflect distinct types of threat. Partners' rejection/abandonment threats and social dominance threats were more strongly associated with engagement in aggression among men with a relatively high frequency of trauma exposure, compared to men with a low frequency of trauma exposure and all women. Women with a high, relative to low, frequency of trauma exposure behaved more aggressively in the context of their partners' social dominance threats; women's aggression was not associated with the severity of their partners' rejection/abandonment threats. Results align with research suggesting that highly traumatized men's misperceptions of threat may motivate their aggression, and indicate that aggression may also be used in the context of accurately detected threat. Integration of methods to alter contextual and individual factors influencing aggression perpetration may improve intervention outcomes. Compared to individually-based interventions, conjoint couple interventions may be better poised to address maladaptive contextual processes that contribute to relationship aggression perpetration.