Personality characteristics of a sample of violent adolescents against their partners

Abstract

Background: The study of intimate partner violence has historically focused on violence perpetrated on females by males, but recent research suggests that, at least in teenage couples, the difference between genders is decreasing or even reversing. The objective of this study is to analyze the personality characteristics of adolescents who are violent with their partners. The sample consisted of 430 subjects (229 girls and 201 boys), between 14 and 19 years (M = 16.18, SD = 1.81), middle or high school students, which completed the Personality Assessment Inventory-Adolescents and the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory. Results: The results show that girls have higher personality scores on the scales that show problems of internal behavior (depression and anxiety), while boys show higher scores on the scales of external behavior problems (antisocial behavior and drug use). Through a regression analysis, the results show predictive weights in the aggression traits (β = .331, p < .001), antisocial characteristics (β = .202, p < .001), and mania (β = .185, p < .05), as the scores on the scale of violence perpetrated increase in girls. For boys, personality variables do not seem to have such a decisive weight to explain the violence committed, since only heat and alcohol problems represent 5.4% of the variance found. These differences between boys and girls should be analyzed in future studies and, if the findings are maintained, taken into account when developing programs to prevent gender-based violence in adolescents. Conclusions:The results of this study show how the personality characteristics have a differential weight in the explanation of the teen dating aggression according to the gender of the aggressors, with a greater relevance in the prediction of the aggressive behaviors committed by the girls.

Depression, anxiety, and drug usage history indicators among institutionalized juvenile offenders of Brasilia

“…This behavioral profile may be attributed to the fact that depression and anxiety signals sometimes coexist in the same individual (Kalin, 2020;Mineka, Watson, and Clark, 1998), although exploratory factor analysis results in samples of psychiatric patients have found BDI and BAI scores to load in two different factors (Hewitt and Norton, 1993). Youth drug abuse is well-documented in different countries and cultures, including Brazil (e.g., Abilleira et al, 2019;Banken, 2004;Carliner, Brown, Sarvet, and Hasin, 2017;Galduróz, Noto, Nappo, and Carlini, 2005;Lopes, Nobrega, Del Prette, and Scivoletto, 2013;Somani and Meghani, 2016), but its rate and degree of severity in institutionalized juvenile offenders is even higher (Grigorenko et al, 2015;Martin and Pillon, 2008). Our results for the youth detention institutions of Brasilia in the Federal District of Brazil corroborate these general findings.…”

“…The literature (e.g., Abilleira, Rodicio-García, Vázquez, de Deus, and Cortizas, 2019;Teixeira and Costa, 2017) shows gender differences in emotional vulnerability, with women presenting higher anxiety levels, depression, and neuroticism. The community, the group of friends, and the family can function as protective factors in the relationship between emotional difficulties and consumption of psychoactive substances, but also as risk factors.…”

Variáveis pessoais e contextuais preditoras de perpetração de violência no namoro na adolescência

“…Os resultados também indicaram diferença por sexo em relação ao tipo de violência perpetrada no namoro, sendo que meninas obtiveram resultados de maior perpetração psicológica e física no namoro, enquanto meninos apresentaram índices mais altos de violência sexual. Tais resultados são consistentes com pesquisas nacionais e internacionais (Abilleira et al, 2019;Izaguirre & Calvete, 2017;Oliveira et al, 2014;Rey-Anacona, 2017). Ressalta-se, contudo, a necessidade de uma visão crítica quanto a essa diferença, uma vez que a intensidade e motivações das ofensas são diferenciadas entre meninos e meninas (Giordano, Soto, Manning, & Longmore, 2010;Shorey et al, 2008).…”

“…No que se refere aos padrões de perpetração da violência no namoro, jovens do sexo masculino tendem a apresentar maiores taxas de perpetração de violência sexual (Rey-Anacona, 2017;Wincentak, Connoly, & Card, 2017), enquanto adolescentes do sexo feminino tendem a perpetrar mais violência física e/ou verbal ou emocional (Abilleira, Rodicio-García, Vázquez, Deus, & Cortizas, 2019;Barreira et al, 2014;Borges, 2018;Marasca & Falcke, 2015). Em estudo que investigou modelos de associação da perpetração e vitimização da violência nos relacionamentos de adolescentes colombianos, o qual considerou a variável sexo, observou-se que, entre homens, os problemas de adaptação estão relacionados à perpetração da violência, enquanto nas mulheres, estão associados à vitimização (Rozo-Sánchez, Moreno-Méndez, Perdomo-Escobar, & Avendaño-Prieto, 2019).…”

Fatores de risco associados à exposição de adolescentes à violência sexual

“…O uso de álcool e/ou drogas foi destacado como fator de risco mais presente para os tipos de violência sexual em diversos países, caracterizando um problema mundial, mostrando que sua utilização de forma abusiva pode levar os indivíduos a apresentarem alterações comportamentais, aumentando os riscos à exposição à violência. O referido achado pode estar relacionado à redução da percepção do mundo ao seu redor, concebendo maior vulnerabilidade ao adolescente (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)35).…”