title: Women's Initiation of Physical Violence Against an Abusive Partner Outside of a Violent Episode.
abstract: This article explores women's use of physical violence against an abusive male partner, outside of the context of a violence episode. Data were drawn from the New Zealand Violence Against Women Study, a cross-sectional household survey conducted using a population-based cluster-sampling scheme. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with women initiating physical violence against their male partners. Of the 845 women who had experienced physical violence perpetrated by their intimate partner, 19% reported physically mistreating their partner at least once outside of a male initiated violent episode, while 81% never initiated violence against their partner. Analyses showed that women's initiation of violence under these circumstances was strongly associated with either or both partners having alcohol problems, her recreational drug use, her number of violent partners, and her mother being hit or beaten by her father when she was a child.
authors.affiliation: University of Auckland, New Zealand j.fanslow@auckland.ac.nz.
authors.forename: Janet L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Fanslow
authors.affiliation: University of Auckland, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Pauline
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gulliver
authors.affiliation: University of Auckland, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Robyn
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dixon
authors.affiliation: University of Auckland, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ayallo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018585:Battered Women / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D000066511:Intimate Partner Violence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009520:New Zealand; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000523:psychology*; D016387:Women's Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: factors associated with women’s use of violence; intimate partner violence; women’s violence against male partners