Prevalence of Covert Violence in Intimate Partner Relationships. A Study with Spanish University Students

Aurelio Lascorz,Elisa Larrañaga,Santiago Yubero

doi:10.4236/jss.2018.612004

Abstract

The use of psychological aggressive tactics in intimate relationships has become a critical target of research in the social sciences in recent years. The goal of the present study is to analyse the prevalence of covert violence in intimate partner relationships, in general and differentiated by gender, using micro sexist aggressions. The objective of this research was to compare differences within each status category (victim, perpetrator, and mutual). A second aim of the study was to explore the influence of the dominance in the cover violence. A total of 1889 youths, from 28 universities participated in the survey, 81.8% of which were female. The results indicate a high prevalence of covert violence in interpersonal relationships, revealing not important differences between the sexes. The mutual violence was the most frequent pattern in the global cover violence (66.7%). The lineal regression analyses reveal that dominance predicts multi-violence in young partners. These data provide an objective view of mutual violence in Spanish community samples and serve as a reference point for prevention and intervention programs.

Highlights

The term intimate partner violence describes physical, sexual, or psychological harm by a current or former partner or spouse
The results indicate a high prevalence of covert violence in interpersonal relationships, revealing not important differences between the sexes
The concept of micro sexist aggressions was proposed by Bonino to refer to those everyday behaviours that are control strategies against the personal autonomy of women, the results confirm that these strategies involving micro sexist aggressions are used both by men and women

Summary

Introduction

The term intimate partner violence describes physical, sexual, or psychological harm by a current or former partner or spouse. An intimate partner is a person with whom you have or had a close personal or sexual relationship [1]. Examples of intimate partners include current or former spouses, boyfriends or girlfriends, dating partners, or sexual partners. Violence does not arise spontaneously during cohabitation; it normally arises during dating relationships [4]. Some studies on its prevalence in dating relationships seem to confirm that violence arises at the beginning of relationships, the most frequent form of aggression in this period is milder and is not of a physical nature [5]. Psychological abuse has been studies to a lesser extent compared to physical abuse [6], it has serious consequences on the well-being of its victims [7] [8]

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