Back to search

Virginia Tech

Predictors of Male Violence in Dating Relationships

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Dating violence among college students has become a pressing concern. However, to date, the bulk of the research in this area has attempted to discern correlates of marital violence. Little research has been paid to the isolation of predictors of violence that occurs early in the relationship. This paper demonstrates the utility of several risk factors identified among male college students in predicting dating violence. Factors included are history of abuse in the family of origin; insecure attachment style as measured by parental attachment and girlfriend attachment; attributional style; anger; and depression. Though it is likely that many other factors predict male dating violence, this study aims to isolate those factors that operate within the framework of history of abuse and insecure attachment. Results indicated the following: 1. History of abuse accounted for a substantial portion of the variance in predicting dating violence. 2. The interaction of attachment to family and partner was related to verbal aggression and abuse toward and from the partner. 3. Attributional style did not significantly predict dating violence beyond history of abuse. 4. Depression was not significantly related to dating violence; however, anger was significantly and directly related to verbal aggression and overall abuse from self toward partner. 5. Results were also discussed in terms of the four abuse criteria, including some notable findings regarding partner attachment style and direction of abuse. In addition, implications for treatment and prevention and suggestions for future research were offered.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Psychology
Department dc:contributor.department
Psychology
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
1996

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Jeffrey, Allison Clifford
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Sturgis, Ellie T.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Gustafson, Sigrid B.
  • Eisler, Richard M.

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-1025168097370
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/35484

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Jeffrey, Allison Clifford. Predictors of Male Violence in Dating Relationships. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/35484