Exploring the Dynamics of Dating Aggression Among High School Students
Isaia, Amy Elyse
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/79801
Description
Title
Exploring the Dynamics of Dating Aggression Among High School Students
Author(s)
Isaia, Amy Elyse
Issue Date
2004
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Espelage, Dorothy L.
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Sociology, Criminology and Penology
Language
eng
Abstract
The current study was the first to assess multiple forms of aggression (e.g., physical, psychological, and relational), allowing for comparisons of these different forms of aggression during late adolescence. Participants included 337 Midwest high school students enrolled in grades nine through twelve. Forty-three percent of the sample was male and 57% were female. The mean age of the sample was 15.96 years, and 86.6% of the sample's ethnic background was Caucasian. Within this study comprehensive models of dating aggression were tested separately for men and women from proposed mediation and moderation pathways. These models included the predictor variables of attachment patterns, self-confidence, and a dominant and controlling personality. Attachment patterns were determined to be directly related to the perpetration of physical and relational aggression by women. Anxious attachment was not related to the perpetration of any form of dating aggression by men nor was it supported as a predictor in the perpetration of psychological aggression by women. Among different forms of self-confidence, social self-confidence emerged as a significant positive predictor of relational aggression perpetrated by women, however no relationship was found between self-confidence and dating aggression perpetrated by men. Participants who expressed higher needs for interpersonal control, disparaging dominance, or restrictive dominance were found to be more likely to aggress toward their partners. The mediation model tested and found that a dominant and controlling personality mediated the relationship between anxious attachment for physical aggression and relational aggression perpetrated by women. The proposed moderation model suggesting that self-confidence moderates the relationship between a dominant and controlling personality and dating aggression failed to reach statistical significance for men or women. This study clearly determines that the path of prediction for the perpetration of dating aggression is sex-specific and that men and women aggress in similar ways for different reasons. This finding directly affects the creation of programming aimed at reducing dating aggression, and it underlines the need to create sex-tailored interventions.
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