Relationship satisfaction and interpartner agreement about acts of physical and psychological aggression: a multilevel analysis

BACKGROUND: To analyze, in a multilevel context, the impact of individual-level relationship satisfaction on couples’ mean reports of aggression and agreement about acts of physical and psychological aggression. METHODS: We conducted a quota sampling method to recruit a community sample of 2.988 heterosexual adult couples from the Region of Madrid (Spain). RESULTS: The percentages of intimate partner aggression considering the highest report of aggression in the couple were around 60% of psychological aggression and 15% of physical aggression. Couples that used aggressive tactics showed low to moderate levels of agreement about physical and psychological aggression. Multilevel models confirm that women’s relationship satisfaction had a significant influence on the level of agreement about acts of psychological aggression, but the same pattern of results was not observed for men. On the other hand, men and women’s relationship satisfaction had no significant influence on the level of agreement about physical aggression. CONCLUSIONS: Psychological aggression plays a more relevant role in women’s relationship satisfaction than physical aggression.