Abstract
BackgroundThe study of intimate partner violence has historically focused on violence perpetrated on females by males, but recent research suggests that, at least in teenage couples, the difference between genders is decreasing or even reversing. The objective of this study is to analyze the personality characteristics of adolescents who are violent with their partners. The sample consisted of 430 subjects (229 girls and 201 boys), between 14 and 19 years (M = 16.18, SD = 1.81), middle or high school students, which completed the Personality Assessment Inventory-Adolescents and the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory.ResultsThe results show that girls have higher personality scores on the scales that show problems of internal behavior (depression and anxiety), while boys show higher scores on the scales of external behavior problems (antisocial behavior and drug use). Through a regression analysis, the results show predictive weights in the aggression traits (β = .331, p < .001), antisocial characteristics (β = .202, p < .001), and mania (β = .185, p < .05), as the scores on the scale of violence perpetrated increase in girls. For boys, personality variables do not seem to have such a decisive weight to explain the violence committed, since only heat and alcohol problems represent 5.4% of the variance found. These differences between boys and girls should be analyzed in future studies and, if the findings are maintained, taken into account when developing programs to prevent gender-based violence in adolescents.ConclusionsThe results of this study show how the personality characteristics have a differential weight in the explanation of the teen dating aggression according to the gender of the aggressors, with a greater relevance in the prediction of the aggressive behaviors committed by the girls.
Highlights
The study of intimate partner violence has historically focused on violence perpetrated on females by males, but recent research suggests that, at least in teenage couples, the difference between genders is decreasing or even reversing
Since the first studies done by Makepeace nearly 40 years ago, attention has been drawn to the phenomenon of abusive interactions that occur among young couples involved in intimate relationships, termed “teen dating violence” (Ortega, Ortega-Rivera, & Sánchez, 2008; Pazos, Oliva, & Hernando, 2014)
Aim Based on previous results that show a pattern of differential behavior of personality variables in boys and girls who are violent against their partner, in addition to following the recommendations of authors who suggest continuing to perform differentiating analyses according to gender to better understand the predictive variables of gender violence among adolescents (Dardis, Dixon, Edwards, & Turchik, 2015), the following objectives are pursued by this research: 1. To study the prevalence of aggressive behaviors against the couple in a sample of adolescents according to gender
Summary
The study of intimate partner violence has historically focused on violence perpetrated on females by males, but recent research suggests that, at least in teenage couples, the difference between genders is decreasing or even reversing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2016) defines teen dating violence as physical, sexual, psychological, or emotional violence, as well as stalking, within a dating relationship It can take place in person or electronically and might occur between a current or former dating partner. Previous research carried out Penado Abilleira et al Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica (2019) 32:11 This role reversal, which implies the equal use of violence within intimate relationships by men and women, occurs independent of the cultural context, with a growing number of studies that indicate the phenomenon is spreading on a global scale. With the exception of sexual violence, females reported having perpetrated the same form of abusive behaviors more often than their male counterparts
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