Violent men, bad dads? : fathering profiles of men involved in intimate partner violence (Chapter 16 of Conceptualizing and measuring father involvement.)

A study examined and compared the attitudes and behaviors of fathers who have and have not abused their partners. Data were drawn from waves 1 and 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households and from the 1990 Census. In the first wave, 264 of 2,930 fathers were violent; in the second wave, 251 of 3,171 fathers were violent. Findings indicate that when ordinary activities of family life were examined, violent and nonviolent fathers did not differ with respect to the amount of time they spent with their children and there was little evidence that spouse/partner abuse increased the levels of abusive behaviors toward children. Maritally violent fathers, however, reported that their children had more behavior problems and perceived children of all ages more negatively than did nonviolent fathers. 10 tables and 39 references.