Sexist beliefs endorsement and tolerance for dating violence through ITC on adolescents

Abstract

Some behaviour patterns performed during the adolescence stage might serve as the basis for gender violence in adulthood relationships. The main aim of this paper is to analyse the level of endorsement and normalization of some specific situations related to gender violence among adolescent population, paying special attention to those beliefs that seem to justify that normalization. The participants were 362 teenagers (188 men and 174 women) whose mean age was 15.39 (SD= 0.999). By 2016, they were studying secondary education in both public and charter schools of the Region of Madrid. The results show that some mechanisms related to control of intimacy and abuse through technologies are very present in adolescent relationships, being observed those mechanisms as performed by both sexes. Nevertheless, adolescents’ beliefs related to love relationships are shown as different depending on the sex of the participants: men present a broader agreement about sexist beliefs, and they sometimes tend to justify gender violence as a sign of love. This fact might be taken as a risk factor for a future violent relationship.