Characteristics of dating violence among Spanish adolescents

This study examined dating violence in a sample of high school students to determine some of the main characteristics of this problem. An incidental sample of 601 adolescents (42% men and 58% women) was surveyed in Salamanca (Spain); participants were between 15 and 19 years old and were either involved in a romantic relationship (44.4% of the sample) or had had at least one serious relationship in the previous 12 months (55.6%), in both cases with a minimum length of one month. Analyses focused on comparing male and female reports of both perpetration and victimization in current dating relationships. The results indicated that the use of abusive behaviours, especially verbal-emotional abuse, is prevalent in Spain. Consistent with previous studies, adolescent boys reported higher perpetration levels of sexual abuse than female did, and adolescent girls reported higher perpetration levels of verbal-emotional aggression than males; there were no differences in self-reports of physical abuse. The implications of findings for future research are discussed.