Young people's romantic relationships can be marked with various forms of dating violence (DV). However, adolescents and emerging adults do not necessarily acknowledge this violence because of their attitudes toward dating violence. Our study aims to study dating violence and attitudes toward this phenomenon through two well-established questionnaires administered jointly in their entirety. Indeed, too many studies report results on some dimensions and items, neglecting the richness of available tools. The Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationship Inventory and the Attitudes Toward Dating Violence Scale were self-administered to 1,014 participants ( M age = 18.9) attending secondary schools or a regional college. They reported the frequency of their dating violence perpetration and victimization, and their attitudes toward dating violence. Results show that relational and sexual violence perpetration rates are higher for males, physical violence perpetration rate is higher for females, and relational violence victimization is higher for males. MANCOVAs not only show the same trends for scores but also underline more frequent emotional violence perpetrated by females, physical victimization for males, and sexual victimization for females. Males show higher tolerance toward every form of dating violence; younger participants are also more tolerant. Participants are more tolerant toward male-perpetrated psychological DV than female-perpetrated ones, and more tolerant toward female-perpetrated physical and sexual DV compared with male-perpetrated physical and sexual DV. There are patterns of multiperpetration, multivictimization, bidirectionality, and multi(in)tolerance. Our paper contributes to the symmetry debate, a better understanding of the link between attitudes and violent behaviors, a further step on gendered attitudes regarding who perpetrates and who sustains.

Youth can experience conflicts with their dating partner and then need strategies to solve such conflicts. Research is scarce regarding positive conflict resolution strategies in a dating context. Considering research on various interpersonal relationships (e.g. friendships, dating, marriage), the present study examined how dimensions of empathy, verbal skills and impulsivity can contribute to the use of positive conflict resolution strategies in dating relationships. The sample is made up of 813 youth attending secondary schools or a regional college (71.7% female, mean age = 18.9, age range 14.2-24.9). They completed self-administered questionnaires investigating positive conflict resolution strategies, as well as dimensions of empathy (i.e., fantasy, perspective-taking, empathic concern, and personal distress), verbal skills (similarities and figurative language) and impulsivity (positive urgency, negative urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance, and sensation seeking). The results reveal sex differences and developmental improvements on several factors. The findings showed that specific dimensions of empathy and verbal skills foster the use of positive conflict resolution strategies whereas specific dimensions of impulsivity and one dimension of empathy hamper it. Both sexes shared a common correlate: the propensity toward perspective-taking fostered the use of positive conflict resolution strategies. In addition to highlighting correlates of positive conflict resolution strategies in dating relationships, this study can contribute to programs dedicated to the promotion of healthy dating relationships among adolescents and emerging adults.

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La violence dans les relations amoureuses des adolescents et des jeunes adultes est un champ d’étude relativement nouveau. Les recherches les plus récentes montrent qu’un nombre important d’adolescents sont confrontés à des situations de violence dans le contexte de leurs relations amoureuses. Alors que la violence conjugale est unanimement condamnée dans nos pays, la violence dans les relations amoureuses des adolescents demeure encore régulièrement banalisée. Les dynamiques soutenant ces violences sont toujours à l’étude. Cet article propose tout d’abord une revue de la littérature portant sur le concept de dating violence, ses formes et prévalences ainsi que des développements relatifs au genre à travers la question de la symétrie et à la place du jeu dans ces relations. Ensuite, il y sera présenté notre étude portant sur un échantillon d’adolescents et de jeunes adultes (N=179), étude permettant un état des lieux des violences agies et subies dans les relations amoureuses au regard des attitudes afférentes (i.e. opinions s’y rapportant). Ainsi, les résultats de notre recherche indiquent, d’une part, des dynamiques de polyperpétration et de polyvictimisation, et d’autre part, des interactions complexes entre attitudes et comportements dans un processus que l’on peut concevoir comme une spirale des attitudes et violences au sein des relations amoureuses. Ces résultats encouragent à des interventions incluant ces différentes dimensions.