This study examines Merton's Classical Strain Theory (1938) as a causative factor in intimate partner violence among college students. We theorize that college students experience general life strain and cumulative strain as they pursue the goal of a college degree. We test this strain on the likelihood of using intimate partner violence. Strain…

The present study examined the effects of perpetrator sex category, victim confrontation, observer sex category, and observer attitudes on attributions of blame and behavioral stability for partner violence. Data were collected from 728 college-aged students enrolled at 2 universities in the United States. Results demonstrated that males and…

Two studies investigated the effects of information related to rape myths on Spanish college students' perceptions of sexual assault. In Study 1, 92 participants read a vignette about a nonconsensual sexual encounter and rated whether it was a sexual assault and how much the woman was to blame. In the scenario, the man either used physical force…

This study compares perceptions of domestic violence for college students planning to work in law enforcement with students aspiring to careers in social work and non-law-enforcement criminal justice (N = 491). The study involves students attending four public universities across one Southern state who completed a survey (spring of 2006) measuring…

Psychological aggression is the most prevalent form of aggression in dating relationships, with women perpetrating as much, if not more, psychological aggression than men. Researchers have advocated for an examination of the consequences that follow psychological aggression for the perpetrator, in hopes that this will lead to innovative…

This study explored the associations between the perpetration of partner violence and two types of face orientation--protective and acquisitive--in Chinese societies. Data from a convenience sample of 3,388 university students from Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing were analyzed. The participants completed the Protective and Acquisitive Face…

The development and initial psychometric investigation of the Dating Attitudes Inventory (DAI) is reported. The DAI was created, to fill a gap in the literature and to measure specific masculine ideology and traditional gender attitudes that rationalize the abuse of women. Using a sample (n = 164) of male college students, a 20-item measure was…

Sexual social exchange theory was applied to perceptions of a date rape by manipulating the cost of the date and who paid in vignettes presented to 188 U.S. college students, who then rated the characters' sexual expectations, blame, responsibility, and rape justifiability. Findings from this between-participant design partially supported…

This study examined the interrelationships among mattering to friends, self-esteem, spirituality, and perpetration of relational aggression in friendships among 457 college students. While the three self-belief variables were positively related to each other, only spirituality and mattering to friends discriminated between men and women. Women…

This study examined gender differences in responses to sexual coercive experiences in mixed-sex (male-female) relationships. Participants were 112 women and 28 men who had experienced sexual coercion and completed measures of cognitive (attributions to self, attributions to the coercer, internal attributions) and affective (guilt, shame)…

Objective: To evaluate the correlates for dating violence among heavy-drinking college students. Method: Participants were at least 18 years old and reported at least one heavy-drinking episode in the past 2 weeks. Results: After covariate adjustment, estimated peak blood alcohol concentration during the past month was associated with higher…

We assessed the association between alcohol consumption and condom use during penetrative sexual assault acts perpetrated by young adult men. Men aged 21 to 35 who reported inconsistent condom use and heavy episodic drinking (N = 225) completed a questionnaire assessing their perpetration of sexual assault since the age of 15, their consumption of…

Sexual revictimization is frequent among victims of child sexual abuse. Several variables, such as sexual experience, substance abuse, and sexual assertiveness, have been proposed to explain the link between child sexual abuse and adolescent and adult sexual victimization, although they have typically been tested separately. The main objective of…

The purpose of the current study is to examine the influence of multiple offender motivations (including no indication of a motivation), relationship length, and gender role beliefs on perceptions of a male-on-female date rape. A sample of 348 U.S. college students read a brief vignette depicting a date rape and completed a questionnaire regarding…

In this study, self-report student surveys on early childhood maltreatment, attachment styles, alcohol expectancies, and narcissistic personality traits are examined to determine their influence on stalking behavior. Two subtypes of stalking were measured using Spitzberg and Cupach's (2008) Obsessive Relational Intrusion: cyber stalking (one…