Abstract
Romantic love in heterosexual relationships is recognized as an important aspect to be considered in relation to the psychosocial mechanisms associated with the persistence of intimate partner violence and the help-seeking barriers faced by female victims. However, few studies have explored the processes underlying the relationship between this form of love and attitudes toward this kind of violence. To do this, the current study aims to analyze the relationship between the adherence to romantic love and the legitimization of intimate partner violence (i.e., perceived severity of violence, victim blame, and exoneration of the perpetrator). It was also to test the mediating effect of patriarchal ideologies (i.e., ambivalent sexism and domestic violence myths) on this relationship. Two hundred thirty-five French adults (51.1% women) were surveyed. The data were analyzed with structural equation models to study the mediations between the variables considered. Consistent with our hypotheses, the results showed that the more the participants adhered to romantic love, the more they blamed the victim and exonerated the perpetrator. They also showed a positive link between romantic love, ambivalent sexism, and domestic violence myths. Finally, the results demonstrated that the relationship between romantic love and the legitimization of violence is mediatized by ambivalent sexism and domestic violence myths. The findings illustrate the need to deconstruct romantic love ideology and the psychosocial logics underlying the legitimization of intimate partner violence.
Highlights
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a worldwide social problem affecting between 10% and 71% of women in their lifetimes (Garcia-Moreno, Jansen, Ellsberg, Heise, & Watts, 2006)
The findings showed that romantic love was associated with evaluations that tend to legitimize IPV, confirming the relationship suggested by some qualitative research
The adherence to this ideology predicts significantly victim blame and exoneration of perpetrator of a case of IPV. They showed that patriarchal ideologies mediated the relationship between romantic love and the evaluation of IPV, which is consistent with the assumption that romantic love is underpinned by stereotypes legitimizing gender inequalities and violence against women
Summary
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a worldwide social problem affecting between 10% and 71% of women in their lifetimes (Garcia-Moreno, Jansen, Ellsberg, Heise, & Watts, 2006). An important aspect of romantic love is to contribute to the definition of gender roles in couple relationships (Rudman & Glick, 2008), in particular, by reducing women’s identity to their feelings of love as well as making love into a destiny they must achieve (Chung, 2005; Power et al, 2006) According to this literature, ambivalent sexism and domestic violence myths are two socio-cognitive constructs that should be theoretically linked to romantic love insofar as they contribute to defining traditional gender roles legitimizing male domination. Do ambivalent sexism and domestic violence myths help to define the traditional gender roles from which representations of romantic love are drawn, but these socio-cognitive constructs are important predictors in the evaluation of IPV This suggests that, behind the adherence to romantic love, the legitimization of IPV is likely to be determined by the internalization of patriarchal ideologies defining gender-symbolic roles and justifying male domination. Hypothesis 4 (H4): The effect of romantic love on the evaluation of IPV will be mediated by the adherence to ambivalent sexism and domestic violence myths
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