Relational Aggression in Romantic Relationships: How Do Honor-Endorsing Women Traverse Conflict with Their Partners?

Abstract

Prior research on cultures of honor have shown that individuals are expected to defend their reputations at all costs, even to the point of physical violence. However, this research has almost exclusively demonstrated this phenomenon in honor-endorsing men, and have implicitly assumed that women are not partaking in aggressive behavior as a reputation defense strategy. Based on prior work indicating the importance of studying relationally-aggressive behaviors, in combination with the very small body of work researching the impact of honor endorsement on female behaviors, the current research intended to assess how honor endorsement may impact women’s relationally aggressive behavior. More specifically, I investigated this phenomenon in the context of romantic relationships, where honor endorsement has been shown to heighten levels of intimate partner violence, albeit exclusively in a physical form committed by men. I hypothesized that aggressive conflict resolution scripts may be an important factor which predisposes honor-endorsing women to partake in relational aggression in their relationships. Across three studies and 1,483 participants, I found that a link between honor endorsement and female’s romantic relational aggression was mediated by an aggressive conflict resolution style (Study 1); women show support for relationally aggressive behavior, believing that it is a positive way to resolve a conflict (Study 2 and Study 3); and support for such aggression does not depend on the presence of an explicit honor threat. These findings suggest that honor-endorsing women play a more active role in the aggression that takes place within the context of relationships, and negative conflict resolution scripts may predispose women to engage in maladaptive conflict behaviors that help perpetuate domestic violence shown to be frequent in cultures of honor.