These differential tendencies of aggression typology for men and women help clinicians to develop preventive interventions for every age, with the aim of diminishing their continuity in future relationships.

Addiction to and problematic use of the Internet are relatively recent phenomena whose scope, characteristics and correlates have begun to receive increasing attention by clinicians and researchers alike. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between time spent connected to the Internet and the variables that indicate a pathological and addictive use of this technological resource. The sample was comprised of 1,301 university students of both sexes (927 women and 374 men), with ages ranging from 18 to 30 years old. The results showed that, although most people use the Internet appropriately, users who invest higher quantities of time in the Internet more frequently exhibit connection behavior that is controlled through negative reinforcement, a high degree of arousal when online, loss of control over connection behavior, changes in health-related habits, and interference in the social, family, academic, or work spheres. These findings suggest that excessive Internet use is associated with the onset of several problems that are similar to those associated with other behavioral and technological addictions.

This study explores the existence of different types of batterers in a sample of 266 men who had been court referred for intimate partner violence. The data collected in the assessment that have been used to perform a hierarchical and a two-step cluster analysis fall into three areas: aggression towards the partner, general aggression and presence of psychopathology and personality traits, more specifically, alcohol use, borderline and antisocial personality traits, psychopathy traits, state anger and trait anger, anger expression and control, anger, hostility, and, finally, impulsivity. The results show a typology consisting of 3 types of batterers on the basis of violence level and psychopathology: low (65%), moderate (27.8%) and high (7.1%). This study provides empirical support for the development of batterer typologies. These typologies will help achieve early detection of different types of batterers, allowing us to tailor interventions on the basis of the needs of each of the types.

Prevention programs for dating partner aggression should be based on knowledge about when such aggression starts and how it changes. Given the very few studies regarding such trends, changes in physical, psychological, and sexual aggression against dating partners were examined in 14- to 20-year-old Spanish high school students (N = 2,016). Overall, psychological aggression increased linearly, whereas physical aggression had a negative quadratic association, peaking at 16 to 17 years for males and females. Sexual aggression was infrequent, but it spiked at age 16 for males. Although physical aggression diminished in late adolescence, injuries as a consequence of such aggression increased linearly for females, and they were also significantly higher for females (14.9%) than for males (3%) at ages 18 to 20 years. The findings support the hypothesis that dating physical aggression for males and females peaks during middle-to-late adolescence and shows a similar developmental pattern to other antisocial and criminal behaviors. Prevention of dating aggression, escalation of such aggression, and prevention of injury should consider developmental trends in dating aggression.

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Underreporting of intimate partner aggression is an important issue in the interpretation of self-reports of such aggression, especially by males. However, both males and females are less likely to report negative behaviors about themselves than about their partners. With 863 adolescents from Madrid, social desirability had a small but significant association with reports of dating aggression, but covariance corrections for social desirability did not alter the conclusions about such aggression. Using uncorrected or corrected means for social desirability, males engage in more sexual aggression against their partners and females engage in more psychological and physical aggression. Maximal dyadic reports based on reports by either self or partner significantly increased the rates of aggression, although conclusions about perpetration and victimization did not differ with this correction. Rates of aggression dropped roughly half when corrected for aggression in a joking context, but more females still reported engaging in physical aggression against their partners. The corrections one wishes to use depend upon the sample under study-i.e., adolescent versus adult populations-and one's research or clinical question, but the use of social desirability controls seems ill-founded. Finally, there is a need for in-depth interviews with both partners in dating relationships to determine more about the contextual factors associated with dating aggression and to assist in knowing what correction factors seem most valid.

The goal of this study is to examine the relationship between substance use (i.e., alcohol and illegal drugs) and dating aggression in couples of adolescents and young adults. The sample comprised 1,282 people of between 15 and 20 years of age. Through cluster analysis, three groups of young people with different levels of substance use were identified: low, intermediate, and high use of alcohol and illegal drugs. Through logistic regression analysis, high levels of alcohol and illegal drug use were revealed to significantly increase the probability of reporting physical and sexual aggression in both sexes. Likewise, young people with high levels of use more frequently reported that they were the ones who initiated episodes of aggression against their partners. The results suggest that alcohol and drug use is a risk factor for dating aggression, a finding that should be taken into account for the prevention of intimate partner violence, beginning in adolescence.Key words: dating aggression, alcohol use, illegal drugs, sexual aggression, adolescence, risk behaviors. RESUMEN ABSTRACTEl objetivo de este estudio fue examinar la relación entre consumo de sustancias (i.e., alcohol y drogas ilegales) y violencia en parejas de adolescentes y jóvenes. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 1.282 participantes entre 15 y 20 años. A través de análisis de conglomerados se identificaron tres grupos de adolescentes y jóvenes con diferentes niveles de consumo de sustancias: bajo, moderado y elevado consumo de alcohol y drogas ilegales. Se efectuaron varios análisis de regresión logística para pronosticar cada tipo de agresión contra la pareja (física, psicológica y sexual) a partir del nivel de uso de sustancias. Niveles elevados de consumo de alcohol y drogas ilegales incrementaron significativamente la probabilidad de informar de agresión física y sexual para ambos sexos.Asi mismo, los participantes con un nivel elevado de consumo informaron con mayor frecuencia que eran ellos quienes iniciaban los episodios de agresión contra su pareja. Los resultados sugieren que el uso de alcohol y drogas constituye un factor de riesgo para la violencia en el noviazgo, hecho que ha de ser tenido en cuenta para la prevención de la violencia en la pareja ya desde la adolescencia.

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