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Dating Violence: A Qualitative Study

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A wide range of research on the relationships between college students, and the violence that is prevalent in them, has been conducted. Much of this research used small samples of couples without separating the genders and exploring how they are affected different by dating violence. The rationale behind the study was that no prior research had used a large sample of participants to test the correlation between being exposed to violence as a child and then partaking in dating violence in college. This would allow results to be more generalizable and representative of the population. The aim of the study was to test whether having a cycle of violence in the family would cause individuals to engage in dating violence as college students or not …show more content…

Both males and females were included in the study. No further information was reported on participant demographics. The participants were conveniently sampled. This was a longitudinal study as it got information from the same participants over a long period of time on the same topic. This ensures that the data obtained from individuals is accurate and a consistency is created. Participants were required to complete the same survey multiple times over the course of 5 times. 167 questions were listed in the survey on various topics such as attitudes towards women. The only materials required were the surveys participants were required to complete. The results indicate that being exposed to violence as a child has a high correlation with being a victim of domestic violence for women. Researchers also found that a large number of college students were currently or were previously in an abusive relationship. Women are more prepared to admit violence in a relationship than men are. A limitation of the study was that researchers used self-reports to create a baseline of the violent behaviour in an individual’s family and violent behaviour as an adult. This could be biased data that doesn’t represent a true comment on the actual situation, misrepresenting the amount of violence in the family, etc. The researchers concluded that women are more readily prepared to admit to having been violent in a relationship before or having been a victim of violence in a relationship before. The inconsistencies between the answers men provided to the answers women provided caused the researchers to conclude that women are frequently dating college men but men much older than they are. For future studies, researchers should extend to a larger population to either prove or disprove the idea that college students are dating, and ultimately having violent relationships, with individuals much older than

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