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Abstract
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The occurrence and forms of violence experienced by adolescents in families and dating relationships were investigated. Subjects were 204 juniors and seniors enrolled in a high school in central Michigan. A primary aim of the study was to examine similarities between adolescents' experiences with dating violence and those reported by college students. Findings indicate that high school students encounter a considerable amount of violence in their families. Results also reveal a remarkable similarity between their dating experiences and those of college students, suggesting that there is a pattern to "relationship violence".
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this study by Roscoe and Callahan was to expand the existing literature on family and courtship violence by questioning junior and senior high school students in order to gather information from adolescents on two issues: 1) family violence (rates of occurrence, perpetrators, victims, forms of violence), and 2) similarities between adolescents' experiences with dating violence and those reported by college students (rates of occurrence, forms of violence, degree of intimacy, causes, locations).
METHODOLOGY:
This study was quasi-experimental. Data were obtained using an anonymous questionnaire administered in the fall of 1983 to juniors and seniors enrolled in a midwestern, senior high school located in a white, middle-class university community experiencing a 9.4 per cent unemployment rate. Questionnaires were distributed and finished in classroom settings at the start of the school day. Subjects were surveyed during the first class period in order to protect against result contamination from students' gaining prior knowledge of the instrument's content. Of the 212 questionnaires returned, eight were incomplete and unusable. Participants ranged in age from 15 to 20 years with the majority (84%) aged 16-19. The sample consisted of 53% females and 44% males.
The questionnaire consisted of five sections with the first section designed to determine whether the subject had ever been involved in a dating relationship. Section two addressed issues concerning courtship violence and section three covered violence in a dating relationship. Section four examined violence in the family of origin and used the same categories of violent acts used in section three. The final section (five) covered demographic data. Descriptive and nonparametric statistical techniques (chi-square tests of homogeneity) were used to analyze data.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
Findings indicated that high school students encountered a considerable amount of violence in their families and the results also revealed that the experiences of high school students were consistent with those of other "relationship" victims such as college students. Key figures obtained from the questionnaire specified that 43% of the subjects reported physical violence experiences at home and 35% reported personal knowledge of someone involved in a dating relationship in which physical violence occurred.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors specified four urgent implications of their study: 1) professionals interacting with adolescents need to be aware of the occurrence of significant levels of violence and make themselves available as support systems; 2) adolescents need to be taught that violence is not a normal aspect of interpersonal relationships; 3) young people must be taught to interact with partners in nonviolent ways; and 4) adults working with adolescents must model styles of nonviolent interaction.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - Junior High School Student
KW - Senior High School Student
KW - Late Adolescence
KW - Early Adolescence
KW - Juvenile Victim
KW - Self Report Studies
KW - Dating Violence Victim
KW - Domestic Violence Victim
KW - Child Abuse Victim
KW - Child Physical Abuse Victim
KW - Dating Violence Incidence and Prevalence
KW - Domestic Violence Incidence and Prevalence
KW - Child Abuse Incidence and Prevalence
KW - College Student Research
KW - Violence Against Women
KW - Partner Violence
Language: en |