Gender, partner violence, and perceived family functioning among a sample of Vietnam veterans.

This study examined partner violence and perceived family functioning among a sample of 298 male veterans and their female partners. Partner violent men were higher than partner violent women on measures of partner violence severity, although differences did not reach statistical significance. Among couples experiencing unidirectional violence, female victims of partner violence reported significantly poorer family functioning than male victims of partner violence. Data appear to suggest that the effects of male-perpetrated partner violence on perceived family functioning may be larger than that of female-perpetrated partner violence.