Factors Related to Intentions to Commit Dating Violence among Taiwanese University Students: Application of the Extended Theory of Planned Behavior

Abstract

Dating violence (DV) constitutes a major public health and safety issue worldwide; however, only limited research into this important subject has been conducted in Taiwan. This study examined university students’ intention to commit DV, based on the expanded theory of planned behavior (TPB), with a history of family violence and gender stereotyping also included as further factors in the original TPB model. A total random sample consisting of 450 university students from four universities in four regions in Taiwan, namely, the northern, southern, central, and eastern regions, participated. Of these participants, 365 (81.1%) completed all of the parts of the questionnaires, which included a survey of demographic data, such as any history of family violence; a gender stereotyping questionnaire; and a DV behavioral intention questionnaire. The results showed that the three main variables of the TPB—that is, subjective norms, attitudes, and perceived behavioral control—significantly related to university students’ intentions to commit DV. More specifically, university students’ attitudes and subjective norms emerged as significant related factors of their intention to commit DV behaviors. Overall, the expanded TPB explained 30.4% of the variance in DV intentions, and attitude was the most significant factors after controlling the background variables. These findings can hopefully be used to help design and implement programs for the prevention of DV behaviors among university students.

Celebrity appearance-shaming: Innocent bashing forms or reconfirming gender norms? A study into the explanations of adolescents’ celebrity appearance-shaming intentions

“…Several authors have shown that stable individual factors influence the relative weights of the different predictors in the model (Ajzen, 2011). Therefore, some scholars have expanded the original theory to include, for instance, cultural factors and personal values (e.g., Lee et al, 2006;Lin et al, 2021). Based on meta-analyses of the use of the theory, these additions appear to be particularly important when examining behaviors with moral dimensions in which one must balance out personal rewards (cf.…”

Sexual and Dating Violence Prevention Programs for Male Youth: A Systematic Review of Program Characteristics, Intended Psychosexual Outcomes, and Effectiveness

“…Combining individual as well as sociocultural factors to explain behavior, this theory has already commonly been used to explain SDV (Miller et al, 2010), also among youth. For instance, a study among university students in Taiwan found that multiple TBP concepts, including positive attitudes towards dating violence, positive perceived injunctive norms regarding SDV, and higher perceived behavioral control to perform violence against dating partners were all related to dating violence perpetration (Lin et al, 2021a). Moreover, a study on Chinese adolescents found that for boys, higher perceived behavioral control and more positive social norms towards rejecting peers' SDV were related to more behavioral intentions to reject peers' SDV (Li et al, 2010).…”

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“…17,18 In addition to the direct application of TPB, several studies have shown that TPB has been extended in different areas with success. [19][20][21][22][23] To some extent, subjective norms in the TPB are virtually a kind of social norm. 24,25 Social norms shape people's motivation and behavior based on the social environment.…”