DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03086.v1
title: Risk Factors for Male-Perpetrated Domestic Violence in Vietnam Veteran Families in the United States, 1988
title: Version 1

description: The goal of this project was to gain a better
 understanding of risk factors associated with male-perpetrated
 domestic violence, partner's mental distress, and child behavior
 problems. The researchers sought to demonstrate that two important
 social and health problems, domestic violence and trauma-related
 psychological distress, were connected. The project was organized
 into four studies, each of which addressed a specific objective: (1)
 Variables characterizing the perpetrator's family of procreation were
 used to determine the pattern of relationships among marital and
 family functioning, perpetrator-to-partner violence, partner's mental
 distress, and child behavior problems. (2) The perpetrator's early
 background and trauma history were studied to establish the degree to
 which the perpetrator's family of origin characteristics and
 experiences, childhood antisocial behavior, exposure to stressors in
 the Vietnam war zone, and subsequent post-traumatic stress disorder
 (PTSD) symptomatology related to perpetrator-to-partner family
 violence. (3) The perpetrator's degree of mental distress was
 examined to ascertain the ways in which the current mental distress
 of the perpetrator was associated with marital and family
 functioning, violence, and current mental distress of the
 partner. (4) Developmental and intergenerational perspectives on
 violence were used to model a network of relationships explaining the
 potential transmission of violence across generations, commencing
 with the perpetrator's accounts of violence within the family of
 origin and terminating with reports of child behavior problems within
 the family of procreation. Data for this study came from the
 congressionally-mandated National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study
 (NVVRS) (Kulka et al., 1990), which sought to document the current
 and long-term psychological status of those who served one or more
 tours of duty in the Vietnam theater of operations sometime between
 August 5, 1964, and May 7, 1975, compared to their peers who served
 elsewhere in the military during that era and to a comparable group
 who never experienced military service. This study relied upon data
 from the National Survey and Family Interview components of the
 larger NVVRS. Data were collected through face-to-face structured
 interviews, with some supplementary self-report paper-and-pencil
 measures. The interview protocol was organized into 16 parts,
 including portions requesting information on childhood experiences
 and early delinquent behaviors, military service history, legal
 problems in the family of origin and postwar period, stressful life
 events, social support systems, marital and family discord and
 abusive behaviors, and physical and mental health. This study
 emphasized four categories of explanatory variables: (1) the
 perpetrator's accounts of family of origin characteristics and
 experiences, (2) the perpetrator's conduct and behavior problems
 prior to age 15, (3) the perpetrator's exposure to war-zone
 stressors, and (4) mental distress of the perpetrator, with attention
 to PTSD symptomatology and alcohol abuse. Additionally, the project
 incorporated four clusters of family of procreation criterion
 variables: (1) marital and family functioning, (2) perpetrator-to-
 partner violence, (3) partner mental distress, and (4) child behavior
 problems. Variables include child abuse, family histories of
 substance abuse, criminal activity, or mental health problems,
 relationship as a child with parents, misbehavior as a child, combat
 experience, fear for personal safety during combat, alcohol use and
 abuse, emotional well-being including stress, guilt, relationships
 with others, panic, and loneliness, acts of physical and verbal
 violence toward partner, children's emotional and behavioral
 problems, problem-solving, decision-making, and communication in
family, and family support.
description: The goal of this project was to gain a better
 understanding of risk factors associated with male-perpetrated
 domestic violence, partner's mental distress, and child behavior
 problems using data from the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment
 Study (NVVRS) (Kulka et al., 1990). The researchers sought to
 demonstrate that two important social and health problems, domestic
 violence and trauma-related psychological distress, were
 connected. Additionally, they showed that the sequelae of trauma,
 defined as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and comorbid alcohol
 abuse, served as major mediators to explain the etiology and
 propagation of aggressive behaviors in families. The project was
 organized into four studies, each of which addressed a specific
 objective: (1) Variables characterizing the perpetrator's family of
 procreation were used to determine the pattern of relationships among
 marital and family functioning, perpetrator-to-partner violence,
 partner's mental distress, and child behavior problems. (2) The
 perpetrator's early background and trauma history were studied to
 establish the degree to which the perpetrator's family of origin
 characteristics and experiences, childhood antisocial behavior,
 exposure to stressors in the Vietnam war zone, and subsequent
 post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology related to
 perpetrator-to-partner family violence. (3) The perpetrator's degree
 of mental distress was examined to ascertain the ways in which the
 current mental distress of the perpetrator was associated with
 marital and family functioning, violence, and current mental distress
 of the partner. (4) Developmental and intergenerational perspectives
 on violence were used to model a network of relationships explaining
 the potential transmission of violence across generations, commencing
 with the perpetrator's accounts of violence within the family of
 origin and terminating with reports of child behavior problems within
the family of procreation.
description: Data for this study came from the
 congressionally-mandated National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study
 (NVVRS) (Kulka et al., 1990), which sought to document the current
 and long-term psychological status of those who served one or more
 tours of duty in the Vietnam theater of operations sometime between
 August 5, 1964, and May 7, 1975, compared to their peers who served
 elsewhere in the military during that era and to a comparable group
 who never experienced military service. The NVVRS consisted of four
 parts: (1) the Preliminary Validation component, aimed at selecting
 appropriate measures of PTSD for use in the larger national survey,
 (2) the National Survey of the Vietnam Generation, the main endeavor,
 (3) the Clinical Interview component, intended to generate
 supplementary data for use in the computation of prevalence estimates
 within the national sample, and (4) the Family Interview component,
 designed to obtain corroborative information about the veteran and
 family-oriented data from a spouse or partner. This study relied upon
 data from the National Survey and Family Interview components of the
 NVVRS. Data were collected through face-to-face structured
 interviews, with some supplementary self-report paper-and-pencil
 measures. The interview protocol was organized into 16 parts,
 including portions requesting information on childhood experiences
 and early delinquent behaviors, military service history, legal
 problems in the family of origin and postwar period, stressful life
 events, social support systems, marital and family discord and
 abusive behaviors, and physical and mental health. The interviews
 were conducted by specially trained interviewers in the homes of
 participants throughout the United States, averaging over five hours
 for the Vietnam veterans. For the Family Interview, spouses or
 cohabiting partners of Vietnam veterans were targeted. The partner
 interview averaged about one hour in length. Data were collected on
 selected background characteristics of the partner and couple, the
 partner's perspective on the veteran's mental health and functioning,
 the partner's own psychological and emotional well-being, interaction
 problems and violence in the family, and behavior and adjustment
 problems for all 6- to 16-year old children in the household. This
 study emphasized four categories of explanatory variables: (1) the
 perpetrator's accounts of family of origin characteristics and
 experiences, (2) the perpetrator's conduct and behavior problems
 prior to age 15, (3) the perpetrator's exposure to war-zone
 stressors, and (4) mental distress of the perpetrator, with attention
 to PTSD symptomatology and alcohol abuse. Additionally, the project
 incorporated four clusters of family of procreation criterion
 variables: (1) marital and family functioning, (2) perpetrator-to-
 partner violence, (3) partner mental distress, and (4) child behavior
problems.
description: Variables include child abuse, family histories of
 substance abuse, criminal activity, or mental health problems,
 relationship as a child with parents, misbehavior as a child, combat
 experience, fear for personal safety during combat, alcohol use
 and abuse, emotional well-being including stress, guilt,
 relationships with others, panic, and loneliness, acts of physical
 and verbal violence toward partner, children's emotional and
 behavioral problems, problem-solving, decision-making, and
 communication in family, and family support. For each variable from
 the original data collection there are recoded and computed
 variables, such as Z-scores, which were used to compute the various
scales used as the primary measures of the study.
description: Response Rates: The response rate for the National Survey of
the Vietnam Generation was 83 percent for all Vietnam veterans.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Many of the question items consist of Likert-type
 scales. Additionally, the principal investigators created several
 scales as the key measures in this study. Perpetrator's family of
 origin characteristics and experiences were operationalized by a
 scale summarizing relationship with mother and relationship with
 father, as well as by an index of family dysfunction consisting of
 four scales measuring family turmoil, severe punishment,
 interparental violence, and an inventory of traumatic events. The
 perpetrator's childhood antisocial behavior was operationalized with
 a five-parcel scale based on items from the Diagnostic Interview
 Schedule (Robins, Helzer, Croughan, and Ratcliff, 1981). The
 perpetrator's exposure to war-zone stressors was measured with two
 scales capturing exposure to traditional combat and perceived threat
 regarding personal safety. Perpetrator's current mental distress was
 assessed using four scales from the Mississippi Scale for
 Combat-Related PTSD (Keane et al., 1988). Additionally four scales
 for alcohol abuse were created using the Diagnostic Interview
 Schedule (Robins et al., 1981) and the Diagnostic and Statistical
 Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV, American Psychological
 Association, 1994). Partner's mental distress was measured with
 scales for general well-being, social isolation, and a scale of
 demoralization based on the Psychiatric Epidemiological Research
 Interview (Dohrenwend, 1982). Perpetrator-to-partner violence was
 based on the Conflict Tactics Scale (Straus, 1979 and 1990). Marital
 and family functioning was operationalized with a scale of marital
 adjustment based on Spanier's (1976) Dyadic Adjustment Scale,
 Dohrenwend's (1982) Marital Dissatisfaction Scale from the
 Psychiatric Epidemiological Research Interview, and instruments used
 in national studies of American life conducted by Campbell, Converse,
 and Rodgers (1976) and Veroff, Dowan, and Kulka (1981). Family
 adaptability and cohesion variables were taken from the Family
 Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales (FACESII, Olson, Bell,
 and Porter, 1978, Olson, McCubbin, Barnes, Larsen, Muxen, and Wilson,
 1983). Child behavior problems were measured with two scales,
 internalizing and externalizing, based on the Child Behavior
Checklist (Achenback, 1978 and 1991).
description: Random and purposive sampling.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Risk Factors for Male-Perpetrated Domestic Violence in Vietnam Veteran Families in the United States, 1988
description: All Vietnam War veterans and their spouses or cohabiting
partners.
description: (1) This data file consists of a selection of
 original items from the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment
 Study. The principal investigators recoded many of the original items
 and computed new items to create several scaled variables that were
 used in the final analyses. The original question text and SPSS
 syntax used to transform variables and create scales are included in
 the documentation for this data collection. Users are also strongly
 encouraged to read the Final Report for this study to obtain detailed
 information on how the scales were created and how to interpret
 them. (2) The user guide, codebook, data collection instruments, and
 SPSS syntax and LISREL programming code are provided by ICPSR as
 Portable Document Format (PDF) files. The PDF file format was
 developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF
 reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how
 to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web
site.