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Volume 20 International Journal of Emergency Mental
Health and Human Resilience
ISSN: 1522-4821
Mental Health 2018
April 26-27, 2018
Page 54
conferenceseries.com
April 26-27, 2018 | Rome, Italy
4th International Conference on
Mental Health and Human Resilience
Kaj Bjorkqvist, Int J Emerg Ment Health 2018, Volume 20
DOI: 10.4172/1522-4821-C1-010
Low intensity intimate partner aggression in Ghana: support for the revised gender symmetry
theory in an African country
There is an ongoing controversy about whether there are sex differences regarding the use of different forms of intimate partner
aggression (IPA). The traditional view, that men are more aggressive than women, has been referred to as gender asymmetry
theory, while the theory that men and women are more or less equally aggressive has been called gender symmetry theory.
Archer (2018) has suggested a revised gender symmetry theory, according to which gender symmetry holds only for low intensity
aggression, while as far as high intensity aggression leading to injury or death is concerned, males are perpetrators to a higher
degree than females. Furthermore, Archer suggests that gender symmetry should be expected to be found only in societies with a
relatively high degree of gender equality. In developing countries, with a patriarchal society structure, such as African countries,
gender symmetry should not be expected to occur. In this study, sex differences regarding the perpetration and victimization of
low intensity IPA in Ghana were investigated. The sample consisted of 1,204 adults (mean age 44.1 yrs., SD-13.5), 602 males and
602 females. IPA was measured with the DIAS-Adult questionnaire. Males scored higher than females on being victimized by
their partner from physical, indirect and nonverbal aggression, while females scored higher than males on being perpetrators of
physical, indirect, nonverbal and cyber aggression. This is the second study to report men being more victimized by low intensity
IPA than women in an African nation, thus finding support for Archer’s (2018) revised gender symmetry theory of IPA but
showing that it holds not only in Western, but also in African countries with patriarchal structure.
Recent Publications
1. Björkqvist K (2018) Gender differences in aggression. Current Opinion in Psychology.
2. Makinde O, Björkqvist K and Österman K (2017) Mediating factors between overcrowding and adolescent antisocial
behavior in Lagos, Nigeria. Pyrex Journal of African Studies and Development 3(3):24-30.
3. Ndoromo O, Österman K and Björkqvist K (2017) Sex differences in victimization from low intensity intimate partner
aggression in South Sudan. European Journal of Social Sciences, Education and Research.
4. Nazar N, Österman K and Björkqvist K (2017) Religious tolerance, views on gender equality and bellicose attitudes:
A study among Pakistani students from three types of schools. European Journal of Social Sciences, Education and
Research.
5. Khademi J, Björkqvist K and Österman K (2017) A study of mental wellbeing of imprisoned women in Iran. European
Journal of Social Sciences, Education and Research.
Biography
Kaj Björkqvist is Professor of Developmental Psychology at Åbo Akademi University, Vasa, Finland. He has published 13 books and more than 100 articles. He is former
President of International Society of Research on Aggression. His research area is Human Aggression, including sex differences in aggression, school and workplace
bullying, conflict resolution, media violence and cross-cultural comparisons. He is best known for his research on indirect aggression.
Kaj Bjorkqvist
Abo Akademi University, Finland