Aggression Between Heterosexual Dating Partners

TLDR

The study aims to evaluate the background‑situational model’s usefulness for understanding dating aggression etiology and identifying intervention targets. Structural equation modeling of survey data from 345 college undergraduates tested the background‑situational model of dating aggression. The study found initial support for the model, showing that attitudes toward aggression, prior aggressive behavior, and relationship conflict predicted dating aggression in both sexes, but family‑of‑origin violence predicted aggression only in women, with predictors accounting for over 60% of aggression variance in men and 32% in women.

Abstract

The authors used structural equation analyses of data obtained from a survey of 345 college undergraduates (232 women, 113 men) to test a predictive model of dating aggression based on the background-situational model proposed by Riggs and O'Leary (1989). Results offer initial support for the background-situational model. Among men and women, dating aggression was directly related to the individual's attitudes about dating aggression, history of aggressive behavior, and conflict within the relationship. However, the predicted association between family of origin violence and attitudes toward aggression and general aggressive behavior was found only among women. Among men, the predictors explained more than 60% of the variance in the latent variable of relationship aggression; among women, 32% of the variance was explained. Discussion focuses on the utility of the background-situational model for understanding etiological factors of dating aggression and indentifying targets for interventions aimed at reducing the problem.