Gender and role associations between domestic violence during childhood and dating violence: Victimization among male college students mediated through violence justification beliefs

Abstract

Background: Although the victimization experiences of male college students in dating relationships are gaining increasing scholarly attention, there is still limited empirical evidence and theoretical understanding of the mechanism through which male victims of domestic violence experience subsequent dating violence.

Objective: This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the specific mechanisms through which male victimization of domestic violence during childhood transmits to dating violence experience in adulthood. Whether the intergenerational transmission of violence may be explained by gendered pathways or by male participants' identification with the victim's position will be tested.

Participants and setting: Participants included 526 South Korean male college students in Seoul.

Methods: Child abuse, witnessing interparental violence, and beliefs justifying and accepting violence were divided based on the gender of the offender and victim to assess distinct effects. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to evaluate the relationships between dating violence victimization and child abuse/witnessing interparental violence and the mediation effect of beliefs justifying violence in the relationships between the variables.

Results: Both paternal and maternal abuse have significant direct relationships with male dating violence victimization. Witnessing mother-to-father violence had a significant and direct relationship with male victimization while witnessing father-to-mother violence did not. The mediation effect of justification of female-to-male violence was confirmed between witnessing mother-initiated violence and male victimization, whereas justification of male-to-female violence did not show a mediating effect between witnessing father-initiated violence and male victimization.

Conclusion: Both role and gender associations were confirmed. The results imply that there are different ways through which children learn about violence. More specific targets should be addressed in education programs to break the vicious cycle of violence.

Keywords: Child abuse; College male students; Dating violence; Interparental violence; Justification of violence; Victimization.