Assessment of physical aggression against women in marriage: The need for multimodal assessment

Physical aggression against wives was assessed in 132 couples attending a university marital therapy clinic. The presence of physical aggression or abuse was assessed at intake by obtaining information from husbands and wives in three ways: (a) written self-report about the most important problems in their marriage, (b) oral responses to direct questioning during the intake interview, and (c) written responses on the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS). Only 6% of wives indicated that physical aggression was a major marital problem in their written self-report. However, when directly questioned in an interview about the presence of violence or physical abuse, 44% of wives indicated these problems existed. Further, 53% of the wives were classified as being the victims of physical aggression according to their reports on the CTS. Physical aggression or abuse may not be reported directly by clients when they present their view of the most important problems in their marriage or in direct response to questioning in clinical intakes. However, this failure to report cannot be taken as evidence that such aggression is absent. Multimodal assessment of physical aggression in marriage is strongly recommended.