Teen dating violence ‒ defined as the threat or actual use of controlling violence, physical assault and sexual assault in adolescents’ intimate relationships (Exner-Cortens, 2014) ‒ is a common problem worldwide (Jennings et al., 2017). This violence can seriously affect teenagers’ mental and physical health, and also their personal development and social integration (Campo-Tena et al., 2023), entailing significant costs for society as a whole.

Intimate relationships between teenagers differ from those of adults in their lack of experience in this field (González et al., 2003) and their impulsive relationship behaviours (Hamby and Turner, 2013). This may lead to the use of poor strategies when coping with conflicts, such as verbal and physical aggression (Mulford and Giordano, 2008). Furthermore, teenagers observe behaviour patterns, learn them and mimic them; hence family models and parental dynamics crucially influence their behaviour (Bandura, 1977).

One of the most significant differences between violence in teenage couples and violence in adult couples is that in the former the weight of gender tends to be less; that is, violence is suffered and committed by both boys and girls, with highly bidirectional behaviour (Wincentak et al., 2017). However, there is some controversy on the subject and other studies indicate that these similarities are due to a lack of gender sensitivity in self-report measures of victimisation and perpetration of violent behaviour (Hamby, 2014). This may mean that, when faced with the same question about violence, boys answer differently to the way girls do. It is important to bear this in mind; otherwise, the results obtained may not illustrate the real rate of occurrence of this phenomenon. This is a complex issue, and not all the underlying mechanisms that would account for its dynamics are known.

This article deals with the problem of teen violence from the perspective of the teenagers themselves, as victims and as perpetrators, through a representative sample of 4,004 young people attending school (girls: 51.2%; boys: 46.2%, and 0.9% who identified as “other“), aged 14 to 17. Most of them (91.4%) were born in Spain and only 8.6% were of foreign origin. With regard to sexual orientation, 81.9% reported that they were heterosexual, 9.5% bisexual, and 2.8% homosexual. The respondents were interviewed using the Juvenile Victimisation Questionnaire (JVQ).

The results show that 13.6% of the respondents were victims and 4.8%, perpetrators. The most frequent violence in the context of intimate relationships is controlling violence (10.1%), consisting in limiting a partner’s contact with friends, impeding him or her from meeting other people, or monitoring his or her phone or contacts. Second place is occupied by unwanted sex (4.5%), followed by hitting or other forms of physical assault (4.2%).

In 2.9% of the sample, victimisation and perpetration of violence are found to overlap within intimate relationships. Recognising this overlap ‒ i.e., taking into consideration those cases in which one individual acts as both victim and perpetrator ‒ is relevant for implementing public policies tackling the complexity of this phenomenon, as interventions to date have tended to focus solely on the circumstances or the background of the perpetrators, without taking into account their own experiences of victimisation, and this leads to a partial and incomplete solution to the problem (Berg and Schreck, 2022).

The review of European studies conducted by Tomaszewska and Schuster (2021) shows that Spain is the country in which most studies on teen dating violence have been published, followed at a long distance by Germany and the UK, thus revealing the existence of a systematic and institutionalised research agenda on this problem in this country. At the same time, Spain yields the highest figures for victimisation and perpetration of controlling violence and physical and sexual assault, in both boys and girls. However, the ranges between studies are so wide as to prevent a definitive conclusion from being reached on the extent of the problem in this country.

Bearing this context in mind, the present study explores teen violence from three perspectives (control, physical assault and sexual assault), using a questionnaire previously applied in other European countries in order to facilitate intercultural comparison (table 1).

In Spain, the results show that teen dating violence affects 18.4% of boys and girls, who can be involved in this phenomenon as victims or as perpetrators. Over the past year, the prevalence rate of victimisation was 13.6% (girls: 16.9%; boys: 10.5%). In contrast, the rate of perpetration was 4.8% (girls: 6.6%; boys: 3.1%). Furthermore, on some occasions these teenagers can act as victims and perpetrators simultaneously. This phenomenon, known as victim-perpetrator overlap, has affected 2.9% of boys and girls over the past year.

By type of violence, 10.1% report that they are victims of controlling behaviours (girls: 13.3%; boys: 7.1%). In turn, 4.1% consider themselves to be victims of physical assault (girls: 3.6%; boys: 4.5%) and 4.3% of sexual assault (girls: 6.6%; boys; 2.1%).

Severe forms of physical assault are very uncommon in teenage couples in Spain. In this respect, it is more important to determine whether physically violent clashes reach a minimum threshold of severity, enabling them to be considered violent, than it is to ascertain who struck the first blow or whether the act in question was in self-defence (Hamby and Turner, 2013). From this perspective, some studies point out that in Spain there are gender differences in terms of the severity of the violence, and that girls report more injuries after suffering physical or sexual assaults (Muñoz-Rivas et al., 2007).

Regarding the prevalence of perpetration, controlling behaviours are observed in 3.0% of teenagers (girls: 4.2%; boys: 1.9%); physical assault in 2.2% (girls: 3.3%; boys: 1.1%), and sexual assault in 0.6% (girls: 0.3%; boys; 0.9%).

Teen dating violence is characterised by the heterogeneity of its figures (Wincentak et al., 2017). Other studies conducted in Spain display a similar pattern, with a higher prevalence of controlling violence and physical assault by girls, whereas boys perpetrate sexual assault more (Sebastián et al., 2014). These finding should be interpreted with caution due to several factors. Social desirability bias may give rise to under-reporting of physical assault in boys and of sexual assault in both genders (Foshee, 2005). Similarly, some studies indicate that traditional gender roles can also lead to higher self-reporting of violence perpetration by girls due to a differential gender socialisation that facilitates recognition of this behaviour, but also due to the less vehement social disapproval they receive (Hamby, 2014). Furthermore, teenagers may interpret controlling behaviour as an acceptable or desirable expression of concern for their partner.

Lastly, the percentage of teenagers who report having been both victim and perpetrator in an intimate relationship over the past year is 2.9% (girls: 4.0%; boys: 1.8%). As has been seen in other types of violence ‒ for instance, school bullying (Baldry et al., 2017) ‒ these results highlight the need to consider the groups of victims and perpetrators individually, and moreover understand them as groups that can be dynamic, as opposed to self-contained or independent. This is due to the fact that, as is explained above, these roles may overlap, and should therefore be the subject of a thorough study with the aim of helping to prevent the problem effectively.

In short, the results show that girls undergo more victimisation through controlling violence and sexual assault than boys, but report perpetrating more controlling violence and physical assault. In contrast, boys commit more sexual assault. In turn, girls are more likely than boys to play the overlapping role of victim and perpetrator in their intimate relationships, although, as mentioned above, these results should be interpreted with caution due to the possible reporting biases related to this phenomenon. Assessing teen dating violence is complex, although the results corroborate that the victimisation rate among teenagers is high, especially among girls. With regard to perpetration by type of violence, the results show that controlling violence is the most prevalent in both sexes.

This snapshot of teen dating violence is crucial for designing effective prevention policies. Intimate partner violence prevention programmes should pay more attention to helping teenagers learn how to establish and maintain intimate relationships, and to understand the limits between what can be considered an acceptable game and violent behaviour (Hamby and Turner, 2013). At the same time, it is also important to study the situation of the most vulnerable adolescents, meaning those who identify themselves as belonging to sexual minorities, have some disability or suffer from mental health problems.
 

This article is based on data from the survey conducted on boys and girls within the framework of the research project selected in the Social Research Call 2021 “SR21-00381: V-O: Does violence beget violence? Victim-offender overlap in Spanish adolescents”, by Noemí Pereda, Diego A. Díaz-Faes, Marta Codina, Alba Águila, and Laura Andreu, of the Child and Adolescent Victimisation Research Group at Universitat de Barcelona. The results presented are part of those obtained in the project. This research has received official support from the Spanish Ministry of Social Affairs and 2030 Agenda, the governments of the autonomous communities of Castile and Leon, Extremadura, the Valencian Community and the Canary Islands, UNICEF, Save the Children and other organisations for the care of children who are victims of violence in Spain.

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