The Attitudes Towards Dating Violence Scales: Development and Initial Validation

This study describes the development and validation of three Attitudes Towards Male Dating Violence (AMDV) Scales and three Attitudes Towards Female Dating Violence (AFDV) Scales. These scales measure attitudes toward use of psychological, physical, and sexual dating violence, respectively, by boys and by girls. Eight hundred twenty-three students from grades 7, 9, and 11 participated in the validation study. All six scales have good internal consistencies. As predicted, students were more accepting of girls' use of violence than of boys' use of violence, and boys were more accepting of violence than were girls. The six scales were positively correlated with traditional attitudes toward gender roles and with each other, providing evidence for their construct validity. Higher scores on the AMDV Scales were related to boys' past use of violence in dating relationships and to their having aggressive friends, supporting their criterion-related validity. Higher scores on the AFDV Scales were associated with girls' past use of dating violence but not with their having aggressive friends, providing partial support for their criterion-related validity. Singly or in combination, the Attitudes Towards Dating Violence Scales can be used to increase our understanding of the development and maintenance of violence-supportive attitudes in adolescents of all ages.

[1]  D. Linz,et al.  The Inventory of Beliefs about Wife Beating: The Construction and Initial Validation of a Measure of Beliefs and Attitudes , 1987, Violence and Victims.

[2]  J. Finn.  The relationship between sex role attitudes and attitudes supporting marital violence , 1986 .

[3]  E. Byers,et al.  Predicting Men's Sexual Coercion and Aggression from Attitudes, Dating History, and Sexual Response , 1992 .

[4]  L. L. Marshall,et al.  Premarital Violence: The Impact of Family of Origin Violence, Stress, and Reciprocity , 1990, Violence and Victims.

[5]  D. DeJoy,et al.  An Experimental Study of Factors Influencing the Acceptability of Dating Violence , 1993 .

[6]  M. D. Smith.  Patriarchal Ideology and Wife Beating: A Test of a Feminist Hypothesis , 1990, Violence and Victims.

[7]  R. Eme,et al.  Sex differences in conduct disorder , 1995 .

[8]  J. Briere.  Predicting self-reported likelihood of battering: Attitudes and childhood experiences , 1987 .

[9]  Janice G. Williams,et al.  From abusive household to dating violence , 1992, Journal of Family Violence.

[10]  Robert F. DeVellis,et al.  Scale Development: Theory and Applications. , 1992 .

[11]  Murray A. Straus,et al.  Measuring intrafamily conflict and violence: The Conflict Tactics (CT) Scales. , 1979 .

[12]  G. Margolin,et al.  A multivariate investigation of dating aggression , 1995, Journal of Family Violence.

[13]  Patricia A. Gwartney-Gibbs,et al.  Violence in the Context of Dating and Sex , 1985 .

[14]  I. Arias,et al.  Evaluations of Physical Aggression Among Intimate Dyads , 1989 .

[15]  P. Jaffe,et al.  An Evaluation of a Secondary School Primary Prevention Program on Violence in Intimate Relationships , 1992, Violence and Victims.

[16]  I. Frieze,et al.  Predictors of Dating Violence: A Multivariate Analysis , 1992, Violence and Victims.

[17]  Patricia A. Gwartney-Gibbs.  Learning Courtship Aggression: The Influence of Parents, Peers, and Personal Experiences. , 1987 .

[18]  E. Byers.  How Well Does the Traditional Sexual Script Explain Sexual Coercion , 1996 .

[19]  Nancy L. Galambos,et al.  The Attitudes Toward Women Scale for Adolescents (AWSA): A study of reliability and validity , 1985 .

[20]  J. Makepeace.  Gender Differences in Courtship Violence Victimization. , 1986 .

[21]  M. O’Keefe.  Predictors of Dating Violence Among High School Students , 1997 .

[22]  E. Byers,et al.  A Comparison of Male and Female College Students' Experiences of Sexual Coercion , 1998 .

[23]  M. Burt.  Cultural myths and supports for rape. , 1980, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[24]  M. Koss,et al.  The scope of rape: incidence and prevalence of sexual aggression and victimization in a national sample of higher education students. , 1987, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[25]  B. Roscoe,et al.  Adolescents self-report of violence in families and dating relations. , 1985, Adolescence.

[26]  M. B. Harris.  Effects of Sex of Aggressor, Sex of Target, and Relationship on Evaluations of Physical Aggression , 1991 .

[27]  F. Costin,et al.  Beliefs about rape and women's social roles , 1985, Archives of sexual behavior.

[28]  Walter S. DeKeseredy,et al.  Woman abuse in university and college dating relationships: The contribution of the ideology of familial patriarchy , 1993 .

[29]  R. Emerson Dobash,et al.  Violence Against Wives: A Case Against the Patriarchy , 1981 .

[30]  L. Bergman.  Dating Violence among High School Students , 1992 .

[31]  James V.P. Check,et al.  An empirical assessment of some feminist hypotheses about rape. , 1985 .

[32]  B. Tabachnick,et al.  Using Multivariate Statistics , 1983 .