Violence in Marital and Premarital Relationships of Russian Men and Women
This research was intended (1) to measure the prevalence of physical violence in three types of intimate relationships: marriage, cohabitation, and dating relationships; (2) to determine whether the status of intimate relationships is a significant factor of violence perpetration against an intimate partner. Because the family violence perspective was used, men as well as women were asked about violence perpetration in intimate relationships. The short form of the Conflict Tactics Scales (Straus & Douglas) was used in the fall of 2007 toward 2009 respondents representing adult population in Russia. Multivariate analysis showed that the prevalence of physical violence perpetration was the highest among cohabitors than married or dating partners even after controlling for sex, age, income, education, social-professional status of respondents. The possible explanations were provided including cohabitation as an "incomplete institution".