One hundred fifty factory workers, associated with a small sporting goods manufacturer, participated in a study designed to measure perceptions of intimate partner abuse in China, Hong Kong and United States. Fifty participants from each country read a scenario that described an occurrence of intimate partner abuse between a man and a woman. The wife's behavior was varied (affair vs. failure to prepare dinner). The participants answered a number of questions related to the scenario and completed the Ambivalent Sexist Attitude (ASI) Scale, the Patriarchal Beliefs Scale (PBS), and the Conflict Tactics Scale-2 (CTS-2). Participants also completed a demographic questionnaire.; Results indicated that participants regardless of country overwhelmingly viewed the behavior depicted in the scenario to be domestic violence. Further, type of punishment the abuser should receive varied as a function of country, with the majority of China participants seeking a legal warning, while participants from Hong Kong and United States preferred counseling. Male participants rated abusers behavior more justifiable than female participants. Further, marital infidelity was seen as more serious than neglect of household duties, with participants in all three countries, judging victim's behavior as more serious in the affair scenario than in the dinner scenario. Lastly, The Patriarchal Beliefs scale was found to be predictive of Conflict Tactic scale scores. This robust finding indicated attitudes and beliefs are more predictive of abuse than country of origin.; Interpretations of the results were presented, and a discussion of the strengths and limitations of the study were included. Suggestions for future research and clinical implications of the study were discussed. The significance of this study is that it attempted to elicit perceptions of intimate partner abuse across three different countries.
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