Causal Attributions of Dating Violence Perpetration and Victimization in a National Sample of High School Mexican Students

Abstract

The controversy over the different natures of causal attribution of male and female IPV perpetration and victimization is examined. To examine causal attribution, limited conceptualizations (victim/perpetrator) must be replaced by a more sophisticated conceptualization taking into account both gender and individual’s involvement in violence as measured by Straus’ (2015) dyadic concordance types. Evidence is provided by the Mexican 2013 National Survey on Exclusion, Intolerance and Violence in High Schools (N = 1478). Partial support is given to the argument that IPV perpetrated by women is conceptually different from that of men because of the meanings attributed to IPV after taking into account the complexity of the dynamics in a relationship as measured by DCTs.