Despite efforts to prevent physical teen dating violence, it remains a major public health issue with multiple negative consequences. This study aims to investigate gender differences in the relationships between exposure to interparental violence (mother-to-father violence, father-to-mother violence), acceptance of dating violence (perpetrated by boys, perpetrated by girls), and self-efficacy to disclose teen dating violence. Data were drawn from Waves 1 and 2 of the Quebec Youth Romantic Relationships Project, conducted with a representative sample of Quebec high school students. Analyses were conducted on a subsample of 2,564 teenagers who had been in a dating relationship in the past 6 months (63.8% girls, mean age of 15.3 years). Path analyses were conducted to investigate the links among exposure to interparental violence, acceptance of violence, self-efficacy to disclose teen dating violence (measured at Wave 1), and physical teen dating violence (measured at Wave 2). General exposure to interparental violence was linked, through acceptance of girl-perpetrated violence, to victimization among both genders and to girls' perpetration of physical teen dating violence. No significant difference was identified in the impact of the gender of the perpetrating parent when considering exposure to interparental violence. Self-efficacy to disclose personal experiences of violence was not linked to exposure to interparental violence or to experiences of physical teen dating violence. The findings support the intergenerational transmission of violence. Moreover, the findings underline the importance of targeting acceptance of violence, especially girl-perpetrated violence, in prevention programs and of intervening with children and adolescents who have witnessed interparental violence.

The reading preferences of 13-year-old boys and girls were examined to identify the factors determining reading achievement. Students from each Canadian province and one territory (N = 20,094) completed a questionnaire on, among others, the types of in-class reading activities. T-test results indicate that the boys spent more time reading textbooks, magazines, newspapers, Internet articles and electronic encyclopedias, while the girls read more novels, fiction, informative or non-fiction texts, and books from the school or local libraries. Logistical regression shows that reading achievement for both sexes was determined by identical reading preferences: reading novels, informative texts, and books from the school library, as well as level of interest in the class reading material and participation in the discussions on what was read in class.

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A study with students from the five linguistic groups in Canada were shown to not succeed at the same level. Francophone students performed better, followed by multilingual, anglophone, allophone, and aboriginal students. Allophones tended to use a more internal locus of control. Students who spoke a Native language were shown to spend the least amount of time writing on the Internet compared to the multilingual and anglophone students who spent the most amount of time, and allophones spent the most time outside of class hours working on homework unrelated to writing and doing activities associated with learning to write.