Gender Differences and Predictors of Violence in Youth Relationships

U cilju utvrđivanja raširenosti i čestine nasilja u romantičnim vezama adolescenata i mogućnosti njegovog predviđanja pomoću varijabli koje teoretski mogu biti povezane s nasilnim ponašanjima, ispitano je 623 učenika trećih razreda iz 14 srednjih škola u različitim dijelovima Hrvatske. U uzorku prosječne dobi 16,8 godina zastupljeno je 55,7% mladića. Instrument sadrži pitanja o sociodemografskim podacima i iskustvu veze u posljednjih 6 mjeseci te sedam upitnika: Skalu pogrešnih uvjerenja o kvalitetnoj vezi, Skalu važnosti prava u vezi, Skalu (ne)spremnosti na postavljanje granica, Iskustvo doživljenih nasilnih ponašanja, Iskustvo počinjenih nasilnih ponašanja, Spremnost na traženje pomoći i Spremnost na pružanje pomoći. Utvrđeno je da djevojke imaju točnija uvjerenja o tome što je kvalitetna veza, važnije im je ostvarivanje prava u vezi, spremnije su postavljati granice u vezi i spremnije su tražiti i pružiti pomoć u slučaju nasilja nego mladići. One u vezi češće čine psihičko i fizičko nasilje te doživljavaju manje ovih oblika nasilja i nasilja općenito nego što to iskazuju mladići. Seksualno nasilje je najrjeđe te nisu utvrđene rodne razlike u čestini činjenja i doživljavanja. Analiziran je i doprinos različitih varijabli u objašnjenju čestine počinjenog i doživljenog nasilja. Muški spol i pogrešna uvjerenja o kvalitetnoj vezi predviđaju veće doživljavanje nasilja u vezi, dok su ženski spol, lošiji školski uspjeh, slaganje s pogrešnim uvjerenjima o vezama i važnost ostvarivanja prava u vezi značajni prediktori činjenja nasilja. Kada se u prediktivni model za počinjeno nasilje uvede i varijabla doživljenog nasilja, objašnjena varijanca znatno se povećava.A sample of 623 third-grade students coming from 14 high-schools from different regions of Croatia was used in order to establish how widespread and frequent occurrences of violence in romantic relationships are and the possibility of its prediction using variables that can be connected with violent behaviour from the theoretical point of view. The average age of the participants was 16.8 years and 55.7% of them were boys. The instrument used includes questions on socio-demographic data and experience of a relationship in the last 6 months, as well as seven questionnaires: Scale of false beliefs about a quality relationship, Scale of importance of rights in a relationship, Scale of (un)willingness to establish limits, Experience of being exposed to violence, Experience of committed violence, Readiness to seek help and Readiness to provide help. It has been determined that girls have more appropriate concepts of what a good relationship is, that it is more important for them to exercise their rights in a relationship and that they are readier to make limits in a relationship and to ask or provide help in case of violence. They commit psychical or physical violence more often and experience fewer modes of this type of violence and violence in general than it was expressed by boys. Sexual violence is least common and gender differences have not been determined in the frequency of committing and experiencing violence. The contribution of various variables in explaining frequency of committed and experienced violence has also been analysed. Male gender and false beliefs about a quality relationship predict greater experience of violence in a relationship, while female gender, poorer school performance, false beliefs about relationships and the importance of exercising rights in a relationship are significant predictors of committing violence. The explained variance increases significantly when a variable of experienced violence is introduced into the prediction model for committed violence