Anger, hostility, internalizing negative emotions, and intimate partner violence perpetration: A meta-analytic review

Prior reviews have identified elevated trait anger as a risk factor for intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. Given that 10 years have passed since the last comprehensive review of this literature, we provide an updated meta-analytic review examining associations among anger, hostility, internalizing negative emotions, and IPV for male and female perpetrators. One hundred and five effect sizes from 64 independent samples (61 studies) were included for analysis. IPV perpetration was moderately associated with the constructs of anger, hostility, and internalizing negative emotions. This association appeared stronger for those who perpetrated moderate to severe IPV compared to those who perpetrated low to moderate IPV, and did not vary across perpetrator sex, measurement method, relationship type, or perpetrator population. Implications and limitations of findings were reviewed in the context of theoretical models of IPV, and future directions for empirical and clinical endeavors were proposed.