Woman abuse is an alarming social problem that remains largely an enigma despite years of research. This article describes some of the complex individual and relationship processes that occurred in an intimate relationship where love and violence coexisted. It describes how gender role ideologies, the distribution of power between partners, and unresolved conflict are related to each other and to the emergence of violence and maintenance of couple bonds. Grounded theory is used to guide data collection and analysis in this single case qualitative study in which both partners were interviewed several times each over the course of 1½ years.
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