Cessation and persistence of wife assault: a longitudinal analysis

Patterns of wife assault, rates of cessation, and the effect of cessation on psychological aggression were evaluated in a three-year longitudinal study of 772 couples. More than one-third of the men who had been violent in the year prior to the initial survey ceased or interrupted their violence and showed significant reductions in their psychological aggression during the course of the study. Implications for the conceptualization and further study of wife assault are discussed.