NCJ Number
227461
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 24 Issue: 6 Dated: August 2009 Pages: 349-359
Date Published
August 2009
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study examined the impact of a person's view of violence as acceptable behavior on dating-violence victimization, relationship satisfaction, and relationship commitment.
Abstract
The findings showed that young men and women reported similar rates of dating violence victimization, which is consistent with other research that has shown that males and females are equally likely to be the victims of dating violence. In the current study, women scored higher than the men in relationship satisfaction and relationship commitment. Men, however, reported higher levels of acceptability for male-to-female and female-to-male violence than females, which was also consistent with previous research. The findings thus suggest that dating-violence victimization does not result in a significant change in a person's level of commitment to his/her partner or their relationship, which is inconsistent with previous research. Such lack of association may be due to the low levels of victimization in the current study. The study administered a survey questionnaire to a sample of 155 male and 417 female college students. Relationship commitment was measured with the Relationship Commitment scale (Rusbult et al., 1998). The amount of violence experienced as a victim in the dating relationship was assessed by using a modified version of the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale. Relationship satisfaction was measured with the Relationship Assessment Scale (Hendrick, 1988). The acceptability of violence was measured with the Acceptance of Couple Violence questionnaire (Foshee et al., 1992). Demographic information was also obtained. 2 tables, 2 figures, and 35 references