35-5 The Influence of Income on Marital Power and Marital Violence
This study explores the influence of spousal income on marital violence and marital power. Seventy couples with husband-to-wife aggression were recruited from a psychiatric center and were divided into three groups based on spousal income: (a) husbands higher in income (n = 25), (b) equal in income (n = 20), and (c) wives higher in income (n = 25). The authors tracked participant's marital conflicts which occurred before the first violent episode, and measured couple's marital power by the Marital Power Clinical Rating Scale, consisting of matter, affection, and resources subscales. Results supported the hypothesis that, among three components of marital power, spousal income positively correlated with resources power the most, yet correlated with affection power the least. The results also revealed that: (a) couples with wives higher in income suffered severer marital violence, especially when the couples were poor or the husbands had mental illness (e.g., schizophrenia, anxiety disorder); (b) the more the wife's income, the greater the marital power, but only the resources power positively correlated with her income; (c) couples with husbands higher in income were husband-dominant in all the three marital power dimensions, yet couples with wives higher in income were wife-dominant in none of the marital power dimensions; (d) couples with equal in income were the most egalitarian ones; (e) no matter how high the wife's income was, her husband had greater affection power. The clinical implications were discussed in four areas: (a) help couples deal with the changes in marital power structure; (b) help couples confront their problems and mend their marital relations; (c) develop wives' relational power, and teach husbands to obtain relational power; and (d) help couples coconstruct egalitarian relations in a conscious manner.
Keywords
income ； marital conflict ； marital power ； marital violence ； mental illness ； schizophrenia
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