Why do men insult their intimate partners?

Author(s)

W.F. McKibbin
A.T. Goetz
T.K. Shackelford
L.D. Schipper
Valerie G. Starratt, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Personality and Individual Differences

ISSN

0191-8869

Publication Date

1-1-2007

Abstract

Men sometimes insult their intimate partners and these insults predict intimate partner violence. No research has investigated the function of men’s partner-directed insults. We hypothesize that men’s partner-directed insults are designed to retain their long-term mate and, therefore, that men’s use of partner-directed insults will covary with other mate retention behaviors. Using the mate retention inventory and the partner-directed insults scale, we conducted two studies to test this hypothesis. Study 1 included 245 men who reported their mate retention behaviors and partner-directed insults. Correlations and multiple regression analyses documented the predicted relationships between men’s partner-directed insults and mate retention behaviors. Study 2 included 372 women who reported their partner’s mate retention behaviors and insults that their partner-directed at them. The results replicated the results of Study 1. Discussion highlights future directions for investigating the relationships between men’s partner-directed insults and mate retention behaviors.

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.11.027

Volume

43

First Page

231

Last Page

241

NSUWorks Citation

McKibbin, W., Goetz, A., Shackelford, T., Schipper, L., Starratt, V. G. (2007). Why do men insult their intimate partners?. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 231-241.
Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facarticles/1183