Gender Symmetry or Asymmetry in Intimate Partner Victimization? Not an Either/Or Answer

Gender differences in physical victimization, sexual victimization, injury, fear, and depressive symptoms were assessed in a representative community sample of 453 young couples. The prevalence of any physical victimization experienced by women and men did not differ (29% vs. 30%), but men reported more severe physical victimization than women. No difference in prevalence of overall injury was observed, but more women reported severe injury than men. Almost twice as many women as men reported being sexually victimized (28% vs. 15%). Physically victimized females reported more fear of their partners than physically victimized men and than nonvictimized women. Physically victimized men and women, sexually victimized men and women, and physically injured men and women all had more depressive symptoms than those men and women who were not victimized or injured. Severely victimized women were 3 times more likely than severely victimized men to have depression scores in the clinical range (27% vs. 9%). In sum, whether one finds gender symmetry regarding aggression and its correlates depends on more than simple prevalence of aggression by men and women.