Gender Violence Among Teenagers

Abstract

This Spanish-based study found that some adolescents link attractiveness with violence. Previous research showed that a socialization process within teenagers' contexts promotes this association. The results suggest that this link is one of the possible causes of the high rates of gender violence among youth. Debates regarding this research already have had political repercussions. Although the 2004 Spanish Act Against Gender Violence--the first of its kind in Europe--acknowledged violence with romantic partners or ex-partners, the 2008 Catalan Act on the Right of Women to Eradicate Chauvinist Violence also recognizes gender violence in dating, and considers preventive socialization as a main measure. This study provides key knowledge to support this purpose.

The Language of Ethics and Double Standards in the Affective and Sexual Socialization of Youth. Communicative Acts in the Family Environment as Protective or Risk Factors of Intimate Partner Violence

“…This last effect is an issue which has been widely explored by previous research (Bukowski et al, 2000) making visible how heterosexual girls who desire this typology of guys are more likely to have abusive dating or abusive marital relations. In fact, research has also demonstrated that the existence of a socialization process that links dominance and attractiveness is an important explanatory factor of IPV in teenagers (Valls et al, 2008). However, present investigation goes beyond these analyses and illustrates how girls' choices in their affective and sexual relationships are conditioned by the interactions and the language used within the family environment.…”

“…Therefore, every-day interaction spaces, like the ones established in family, contribute to foster or reject certain models of attractiveness, so these spaces become very important at early ages. Recent studies on this line illustrate an alarming problem concerning the existence of models of attractiveness which are connected to violent behaviors, this means that young people and adolescents are being socialized on attraction toward violence and this can drive them to toxic relationships marked by IPV (Valls et al, 2008). Valls et al (2008) confirmed that issue and they discovered that this link between aggressiveness and attractiveness is due a chauvinist socialization process which promotes desire toward masculine models that are dominant and violent.…”

“…Research on family and gender issues has analyzed intimate partner violence (IPV) reaching different conclusions (Teaster et al, 2006;Valls et al, 2008Valls et al, , 2016Yount and Li, 2009;Martin et al, 2013;Medrano et al, 2017;Vidu et al, 2017). One of these conclusions concerns on the central role that socialization process has in the reproduction of this problem.…”

“…There is an important amount of analyses that stress the fact that models of attractiveness are socially constructed and this becomes a procedure which is influencing people's choices on relation to sexual and affective relationships (Valls et al, 2008;Díez-Palomar et al, 2014;Gomez, 2015;Puigvert, 2016). This group of researches starts from a conceptualization of models of attractiveness that understand them as social patterns which provide of desire or valorization particular types of masculinities and feminities (Padrós, 2012).…”

Female University Students Respond to Gender Violence through Dialogic Feminist Gatherings

“…It is important to highlight the study by Valls, Puigvert and Duque (2008), which demonstrates that certain adolescents have been socialized into forming a type of relationship that results from this association. These authors performed their study in the Spanish context while drawing on previous research that reports a socialization process 188 Puigvert -Female Univesity Students Respond to Gender Violence within adolescent contexts that enhances this link.…”