An Ecological Study on the Cause of Wife Abuse Behavior among Korean Husbands

아내학대의 원인에 대한 생태학적 연구 -도시 중산층 부부를 중심으로-

The purpose of the study were two fokls: to investigate causes of wife abuse through both husbands and wives as the research subject and through ecological perspective as a theoretical framework. Data were collected using self-reporting questionnaires distributed to 400 couples in Seoul and Taegu. 280 questionnaires were used in the final analysis. The major findings of the study were summarized in the following. First, the percentage of samples who reported one or more instances of acts in each scale was 84.3%(236 couples). They reported having been a vicitm of abuse by their partners at least one instance in the preceding 12 months. Secondly, the hierarchical and stepwise regression yielded the result that wife abuse behavior by husbands was influenced by husband's microsytem(e.g.job stress, marital satisfaction, education level and occupation) and organism variables(e.g. husband's perceptions about the violence level of mass media, childhood observation of parental violence, childhood experience of the battering). These variables accounted for 38% of variance of wife abuse behavior among Korean husbands.