Marital power and aggression in a community sample of Hong Kong Chinese families

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the pattern of marital power distribution and its association with marital aggression and satisfaction in contemporary Chinese families. A randomized community sample of 1,270 (518 males and 752 females) married Chinese who were 18 years or older and who resided in Hong Kong were telephone interviewed. Approximately half of the respondents reported having egalitarian relationships with their partners regarding decision making. Women's demographic characteristics, but not men's, were related to how decision making was distributed in marital relationships. Egalitarian decision making was directly associated with marital satisfaction but inversely related to marital aggression. In particular, verbal and physical aggression was less prevalent in egalitarian marriages, and there was a trend that severe violence was more prevalent in relationships that were husband-dominant. Men tended to have higher levels of marital satisfaction than did women, and marital satisfaction was higher in egalitarian or divided power relationships.