Dating violence in adolescence: An exploratory study on personality traits, legitimizing attitudes and prevalence

Abstract

Dating violence is recognized as a global priority for research and intervention. Although legitimizing attitudes toward dating violence and personality traits are considered risk factors, their joint contribution to adolescent dating violence remains limited. This study aimed to characterize the prevalence of dating violence among adolescents and its associations with legitimizing attitudes, neuroticism and agreeableness. The study included 410 Portuguese adolescents aged 14 to 19 years (M = 17.18, SD = 1.39). Participants completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory–Short Form, the Attitudes Toward Dating Violence Scale and the Mini International Personality Item Pool. Results showed that 57.3% of adolescent reported perpetrating at least one form of dating violence and 58.9% reported victimization, with verbal/emotional violence being the most prevalent subtype. No significant gender, developmental stage, or interaction effects was found for overall dating violence perpetration and victimization. However, significant main effects of gender and developmental stage, as well as significant gender × developmental stage interactions, were observed for legitimizing attitudes toward psychological and physical dating violence. Boys reported higher legitimizing attitudes than girls during middle adolescence, whereas no gender differences were observed during late adolescence. Moreover, only boys showed a significant decline in legitimizing attitudes from middle to late adolescence. Perpetration and victimization were positively associated. Neuroticism and agreeableness were associated with perpetration, but only neuroticism was associated with victimization. Legitimizing attitudes explained additional variance beyond traits. These findings support prevention programs targeting violence-supportive beliefs during adolescence and inform future research on the interplay among personality traits, legitimizing attitudes and dating violence.