Violence in dating relationships is a fact that has a serious impact on the physical and psychological health of the victims and their interpersonal relationships. This violence has diverse manifestations that go from the threats and the controlling conducts, to the verbal, physical and sexual aggressions.
But what are the causes that contribute to the existence of violence in the courtship?
Girls in this stage have little or no experience in relationships. What they know about them is strongly influenced by television, movies, music or youth magazines that often reproduce and reinforce macho and sexist attitudes and behavior.
The inexperience in affective relationships, in the proper behaviors in them and, above all, their false perception of how they should be, places them in a situation of risk.
The culture of romantic love exerts an enormous influence in the period of adolescence and allows the establishment and maintenance of relationships that could be considered potentially destructive. An excessively romantic view of love can contribute to young girls tolerating a suffocating relationship in which the feeling of love is used as a justification of the control that the couple can exercise. This same vision helps young people to relate from a stereotyped role that associates control with masculinity.
Adolescence is a period of rebellion and affirmation in front of the adult world, which can harm the revelation of a situation of violence. Young women fear the different reactions of older people: that they underestimate what happens to them, that they "control" them or overprotect them, that they denounce their partner, or distance them from it. In summary, prioritize your safety by limiting your freedom
They do not identify psychological abuse behaviors as violence. When they think about abuse they do it thinking about serious physical aggressions, those that take a woman to the hospital or kill her.
They consider jealousy as a normal sign of love that will be present in all relationships.
They do not detect control behaviors as indicators of violence.
Some sexist stereotypes are still present among young people, like the stereotype of "woman object", very present in boys.
Girls and boys are able to identify situations of discrimination against women in society and in their environment, but in their own relationship they do not identify abusive behaviors and minimize the importance of situations of violence.
When describing their "ideal partner" the boys do it as a sexual object and the girls choose the "bad boy", cheeky or rebellious, who is the attractive model; the models of attraction are not equal among the youth, on the contrary, it attracts the one or the one closest to the traditional stereotype.