Social Desirability and Partner Agreement of Men’s Reporting of Intimate Partner Violence in Substance Abuse Treatment Settings

Abstract

Estimates indicate that intimate partner violence (IPV) occurs in approximately 30% of relationships and up to 85% of the relationships of men in substance abuse treatment. However, partners consistently display poor agreement in reporting the presence of IPV. Social desirability is frequently offered as the primary reason for under-reporting of IPV by perpetrators. The goal of the current study was to explicitly test the social desirability hypothesis using both partners’ reports of negotiation, psychological aggression, physical aggression, sexual aggression, and injuries in a substance abuse treatment sample. A total of 54 males and their female partners were recruited from a residential adult substance use treatment facility. Consistent with prior literature, partners displayed poor agreement about the presence of different types of IPV. The male partner’s social desirability was not associated with his reporting of male-to-female physical aggression, psychological aggression, or injuries. Men who engaged in higher levels of self-deceptive enhancement and lower levels of impression management were more likely to under-report male-to-female sexual coercion. Overall, the findings question the generalized importance of social desirability in IPV reporting in substance abuse treatment populations.