Sexual Jealousy and Intimate Partner Violence in Urban China: A Population-Based Survey

Tianfu Wang, University of Chicago
Edward O. Laumann, University of Chicago

This paper examines the links between sexual jealousy and intimate partner violence, with data from a nationally representative survey of China completed in 2000. Among urban respondents age 20-64 during the previous year, 6% of women and 4% of men were hit by their partner without retaliation, and another 2% of couples experienced mutual hitting. Women's empowerment reduces their risk of being hit, even though those with a laid-off or unemployed husband face a higher risk. The results demonstrate that women are jealous as much as or more so than men and share similar triggers of jealousy with men. Jealousy exacerbates hitting for both men and women in a reactive pattern ¨C the jealous partner gets hit.