Tolerance of abuse within Mexican adolescent relationships

Lourdes Cortés Ayala,Luis Rodríguez Franco,Francisco Javier Rodríguez Diaz,Cristina Estrada Pineda,M Ángeles Antuña Bellerín,Carolina Bringas Molleda

doi:10.1186/s41155-016-0050-8

Abstract

Violence in interpersonal relationships in young people has been the subject of several studies in recent years. Studies of dating violence show that one of the resources available for the young to help perceive and distinguish abusive or violent behaviour is an indicator which increases the ability to recognise as well as confront the reality of abuse. Certain violent behaviour however can be perceived as non-abusive, where the victim and the aggressor can share an abnormal view of the relationship in which possession, jealousy and exclusivity are considered significant elements within the relationship. The objective of this study is to understand and establish the levels of aggravation (degree of tolerance) towards violent behaviour in relationships of engaged adolescent Mexicans affected by abuse, by considering gender and level of perception of abuse as variables. The sample was formed of 3304 young Mexican students between the ages of 13 and 22, containing 1432 boys and 1872 girls, 1383 pursuing university studies, whereas the remaining 1921 were pre-university students. CUVINO was administered in order to determine the abusive conduct and levels of discomfort (tolerance), which allowed us to observe that the highest levels of discomfort, greater than those caused by any other kind of abuse, are experienced by women, especially regarding sexual victimization within the category of those non-abused women that presented a lower level of tolerance. This finding led us to identify, as a major risk factor, those men and women with a high level of tolerance, who did not perceive themselves as having been abused.

Highlights

The study of dating violence has received a lot of attention recently, both for its prevalence rate as well as for the repercussions for those who suffer from this violence (Cho et al 2014; Ruiz-Hernández et al 2015; Muñoz-Rivas et al 2007; Rodríguez-Franco et al 2016; Rodríguez-Franco et al 2010; Gómez et al 2014)
A higher degree of distress exists among females, that is, a lower level of tolerances shown towards each type of abuse considered in CUVINO
The results obtained by grouping these samples into these categories (Table 2) indicate various differences between males and females: in all cases, women showed a significantly higher level of distress, and in the majority of cases, a medium effect size (ES); low ES results were obtained for the Emotional Punishment factor (0.42) in the subsample of abused subjects, and the highest results were those of where Sexual Abuse had taken place (ES 1.03)

Summary

Introduction

The study of dating violence has received a lot of attention recently, both for its prevalence rate as well as for the repercussions for those who suffer from this violence (Cho et al 2014; Ruiz-Hernández et al 2015; Muñoz-Rivas et al 2007; Rodríguez-Franco et al 2016; Rodríguez-Franco et al 2010; Gómez et al 2014). Kahn et al (2003) and Harned (2005) have addressed the issue that consent or tolerance seem to play a key role in the labelling (or recognition) of a situation as abusive. Other studies show that university students do not perceive coercive sexual tactics as problematic, especially if they imply little or no physical force. This leads to such behaviour being seen as socially acceptable and increases the probability of it occurring again in the future. Similar conclusions regarding the tolerance of violence and its reoccurrence are given within American (McDonell et al 2010), Canadian (Connolly et al 2010) and Mexican (Sánchez and Solís 2007) publications

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Conclusion