Violencia en la pareja: manifestaciones concretas y factores asociados.

This is a field investigation of the descriptive and exploratory type that considered variable-aspects such as: socioeconomic level, communication and violence between the spouses. This investigation was carried out in a community of low socioeconomic level in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela during the year 2006. A sample of 45 families was selected and the women were defined as units of information. High levels of verbal violence generated by both members of the couple were reported, as well as high levels of verbal interaction and low ones of physical violence. In this sense we can assume that the verbal abuse could be working in two ways - at least for this study group - as a substitute for physical violence or as the first step of a phenomenon that usually develops in stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]