Intimate partner aggression (IPA) is a multi-faceted phenomenon that ranges from severe forms of intimate partner violence to less severe behaviors, common couple violence (Simpson et al., 2007). Communication conflict, which assesses the intensity and frequency of arguments, is often conceptualized as a precursor to common couple violence. The I3 model (I-Cubed; Finkel, 2014) is a key model in explaining IPA and proposes that there are impellance and inhibitory factors that may increase or decrease, respectively, the likelihood that people will act aggressively. The present study examined the interaction between an impellance factor, negative urgency, the tendency to act rashly in response to negative affect (Whiteside & Lynam, 2001), and an inhibitor, cognitive reappraisal, the ability to cognitively restructure an emotion-eliciting situation into non-emotional terms (Gross, 1998b). Participants included 1,159 couples (N = 2,318 individuals; mean age = 33.4; 73.8% White; 86.5% Non-Hispanic) who took part in a randomized controlled trial for an online intervention. For the current report, couples were assessed cross-sectionally at baseline. Each participant completed self-report measures of negative urgency and cognitive reappraisal, along with a measure of couple-level communication conflict. There was a significant interaction between negative urgency and cognitive reappraisal on communication conflict for female partners. For male partners, there was a significant main effect of negative urgency. This study highlights the importance of considering cognitive and emotional individual differences factors in the etiology of IPA and their applicability to intervention efforts.
