It is often heard among people responsible for the prevention of gender-based violence and the public, that gender-based violence occurs between stable partners. This hoax hides the enormous rate of gender-based violence in sporadic relationships. This idea makes it difficult in educational settings to develop prevention programmes on gender violence from an early age.
For example, in a survey conducted in the US, approximately 81% of mothers and fathers of teenagers in the US believe that dating violence is not a problem or admit that they do not know if it is a problem.
Vagi, K. J., Olsen, E. O. M., Basile, K. C., & Vivolo-Kantor, A. M. (2015). Teen dating violence (physical and sexual) among US high school students: Findings from the 2013 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey. JAMA pediatrics, 169(5), 474-482. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25730143/ (JCR Q1 in 2015; Q1 in 2019; Scopus Q1 in 2015; Q1 in 2019)
There is international research which directly links gender-based violence with dates and non-stable relationships. This research illustrates that the important is not the nature of the relationship although the person who is chosen for this relationship.
References
Litz, K., & Holvoet, N. (2019). Adolescent dating violence among Nicaraguan youth. Violence against women, 1077801219889182. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801219889182
Valls, R., Puigvert, L., & Duque, E. (2008). Gender violence among teenagers: Socialization and prevention. Violence against women, 14(7), 759-785. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801208320365
In a study about the coercive discourse and its impact on women’s pleasure, participants explained that whereas they had never felt pressures to have stable relationships with nice guys, they had suffered a lot of pressures to hook up with violent boys:
Torras-Gómez, E.; Puigvert, L.; Aiello, E.; Khalfaoui, A. (2020). Our Right to the Pleasure of Falling in Love. Frontiers in Psychology. https://10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03068
There are several studies that evidence that gender-based violence is not related to the lenght of the relationship, but the person chosen to share this relationship (Giebel et al., 2015; Racionero et al., 2019). Therefore, perpetration of violence is linked with men with Dominant Traditional Masculinities, which represent “those men who embrace the values of the patriarchal society and consider themselves to be the ones who ‘know about sex’, and they are sometimes linked with violent attitudes.” (Puigvert et al., 2019)
REFERENCES
Giebel, G., Moran, J., Schawohl, A., & Weierstall, R. (2015). The thrill of loving a dominant partner: Relationships between preference for a dominant mate, sensation seeking, and trait anxiety. Personal Relationships, 22(2), 275-284. (JCR Q3 in 2015 ; Q3 in 2015; SCOPUS Q1 in 2015; Q1 in 2019)
Racionero-Plaza, S., Ugalde, L., Merodio, G., & Gutiérrez-Fernández, N. (2019). “Architects of Their Own Brain.” Social Impact of an Intervention Study for the Prevention of Gender-Based Violence in Adolescence. Frontiers in psychology, 10. (JCR Q2 in 2019; SCOPUS Q1 in 2019)
Puigvert, L., Gelsthorpe, L., Soler-Gallart, M., & Flecha, R. (2019). Girls’ perceptions of boys with violent attitudes and behaviours, and of sexual attraction. Palgrave Communications, 5(1), 1-12. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-019-0262-5 (SCOPUS Q2 2019) ALTMETRIC: 102