The participants were 180 cohabiting men divided into four groups: 44 maritally violent, uncounseled wife beaters (MVU); 46 maritally violent, counseled wife beaters (MVC); 46 nonviolent, unhappily married men (NVD); and 44 nonviolent, satisfactorily married men. All participants answered a modified version of the Conflict Tactic Scales. Men qualified as maritally violent if they engaged in more than two acts of minor physical violence more than once in the relationship or if they engaged in even one act of severe violence. Subjects responded to the short form of the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test. Taken together, the results suggest that maritally violent men (MVU, MVC) are no more jealous or romantically anxious than maritally nonviolent men who are unhappily married (NVD). Maritally violent men do, however, have stronger reasons for staying in their relationships and have grown up in more physically abusive homes than maritally nonviolent men. Significant relationships exist between levels of jealously, reasons for staying, marital dissatisfaction, and childhood abuse factors. One speculative suggestion is that variation in nonphysical parental abuse during childhood (e.g., criticism) promotes the development of jealousy in adult marital relationships. 2 tables and 49 references