4058.0: Tuesday, November 14, 2000 - 8:45 AM

Abstract #9503

Intimate partner violence agreement II: Memory ability is related to agreement about violence among polysubstance abusing couples

Krista Lisdahl Medina, Paula K. Shear, PhD, Tisha Gangopadhyay Armstrong, and John Schafer, PhD. Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati, 416 A Dyer Hall, ML 376, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0376, (513) 556-5598, lisdahk@email.uc.edu

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious health problem in the United States. There is strong evidence that men and women do not agree about the occurrence of IPV. One possible mechanism underlying disagreement is memory dysfunction. The principal goal of this study is to test whether memory ability is related to disagreement about the occurrence of IPV. Data were collected from both partners of cohabiting or married couples (N=276). The male partners were polysubstance abusers within their first year of abstinence. Participants were administered neuropsychological tests and self-administered questionnaires, including the revised Conflict Tactics Scales adapted to measure the most recent conflict (CTS2). The cognitive battery included tests of verbal and visual memory, sequencing, and inhibition of overlearned responses. A series of overdispersed Poisson regressions were run to test whether memory is associated with disagreement about conflict while controlling for other cognitive tasks, substance use, age, SES, and ethnicity. The regressions were analyzed separately for male and female predictors, and for male-to-female and female-to-male perpetration. The results indicate that both the men and women's memory scores are significantly related to disagreement about IPV.

Learning Objectives: 1. Participants will be able to identify the cognitive functions that relate to agreement about intimate partner violence (IPV) among polysubstance abusing couples. 2. Participants' knowledge will be enhanced about the relationship between cognitive functioning and agreement about IPV. This will further their understanding of partner conflict. 3. Participants will be able to list the specific cognitive functions related to agreement about IPV

Keywords: Violence, Substance Abuse

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

The 128th Annual Meeting of APHA