VIOLENT COMMUNICATION IN THE COUPLE, IRRATIONAL BELIEFS ABOUT VIOLENCE, GENDER ROLES AND THE COUPLE RELATIONSHIP: ANSWER DISTORTIONS

Scientific studies of violence within couples confirm that the way to deal with conflict is determined by the relational style within the couple and the individual variables of its members. We analysed the relationship between violent communication within couples and the irrational beliefs/distorted thinking about violence, gender roles and the couple relationship. In order to monitor the effect of bias in responses, we incorporated different scales for response distortion. The sample was formed of 206 adults (103 men and 103 women) from the Canary Islands (M-age = 35.93 years; TD = 10.23). We made use of the Communication and Resolution of Conflicts within Couples Questionnaire (CPC-RC-Pareja) and the Irrational Beliefs and Distorted Thinking about the Use of Violence, Gender Roles and the Couple Relationship (Emotional Dependence) Questionnaire with the incorporation of the Honesty scale from the ATRAMIC test. We used factorisation of the beliefs instrument with the Honesty scale and other questionnaires to measure personality and self-esteem. Violent communication with couples correlated positively and significantly with the irrational beliefs factors of the questionnaire. We did not find significant differences by gender in these variables. We verified that the variables that best predict "Excluding-Imposing Behaviour" are Gender Role, Honesty, Feelings of Inferiority and Couple Relationship.