The interview consisted of a semistructured, open-ended questionnaire and a set of eight standardized instruments. The questionnaire contained personal and family demographic items as well as several questions about the partner's drinking habits. Partner's frequency of intoxication, as reported by the woman, was used as one of the independent variables. The Index of Spouse Abuse was used as the outcome variable. It is a 30-item scale designed to measure the severity of abuse. The Bicultural Involvement Questionnaire was used to measure acculturation level, and the Hispanic Stress inventory was developed to assess psychological stress among U.S. Latinos. The Mutual Psychological Development Questionnaire is a 22-item scale that measures perceived mutuality in close relationships; and three other scales measured depressive symptomatology, level of self-esteem, and socially desired characteristics for males and females in Western culture. Hypotheses were derived from several frameworks relevant to understanding abuse: intrapsychic (learned helplessness), interpersonal (family violence), and feminist theory. Findings related to the specific formulations were subsequently combined into a model of abuse in which the mutuality of communication within the couple mediates the effects of husband's intoxication and environmental stressors on the occurrence/severity of abuse. The study shows the inadequacy of relying on any one existing theory and supports the concept of an ecological approach to the study of abuse in specific populations. 8 tables, 2 figures, and 29 references