Dating violence victimization, perceived gravity in dating violence behaviors, sexism, romantic love myths and emotional dependence between female and male adolescents

Abstract

A field study was designed to determine whether gender differences exist among adolescents in self-reported victimization of dating violence, perceived gravity of dating violence behaviors, sexism, myths about romantic love and emotional dependence. For that purpose, a random sample of 246 adolescents, 125 girls and 123 boys, aged from 14 to 17 years (M = 15.39; SD = 0.95), was selected from the community and answered with instruments to measure the victimization of dating violence, perceived gravity of dating violence behaviors, sexism, myths about romantic love and emotional dependence. The results showed that girls perceived more gravity in dating violence behaviors than boys; that boys and girls equally reported being victims of dating violence, except for physical violence victimization which was more reported by boys; and that boys revealed greater emotional dependence, romantic love myths and sexism than girls. In addition, we observed that these variables were significantly correlated with each other. Finally, the implications of the results for the design of prevention and intervention programs with adolescents are discussed.