Attitudinal Correlates of Girls' Use of Violence in Teen Dating Relationships

This article explores the applicability of the Theory of Planned Behavior in understanding female perpetrated adolescent dating violence. The Theory of Planned Behavior is intended to predict behavioral intention by examining the actor's perceptions of consequences and rewards associated with the behavior, social acceptability of the behavior, and behavioral control. Previous research on adult populations has found that the planned behavior model is correlated with violent behavior among males (Tolman, Edleson, & Fendrich, 1996), but not females (Kernsmith, 2005). The current study found that the model partially explained the violent behavior of girls, but only perceptions of social norms were significant.