Ajuste Diádico, Victimización y Perpetración en Mujeres y Hombres Mexicanos

The present study sought to detect the relationship between dyadic adjustment and victimization and perpetration of violence, taking into account sex, number of children and years of relationship. A demographic data form, the Suffered and Exerted Couple Violence Questionnaire, and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale were administered to an incidental non-probability sample of 120 women and 120 men from Monterrey, Mexico. Models were contrasted by path analysis. In both sexes, having fewer children predicted greater dyadic adjustment, and greater dyadic adjustment predicted lower levels of victimization and perpetration. In women, victimization and perpetration were independent, whereas in men they were related, following a recursive model of reactive or proactive violence. In men, but not in women, having more children predicted a higher perpetration level. In men years of relationship were correlated with victimization and perpetration, but did not predict violence, because these correlations were fully mediated by dyadic adjustment. It is concluded that predictors of victimization and perpetration differ between both sexes and that dyadic adjustment mediates the correlations between years of relationship, number of children, and intimate partner violence.