Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore coping styles of inflictors and recipients of dating violence, and to provide valuable information for prevention of dating violence. The participants were 451 college students (175 males and 276 females) who had the experience of heterosexual dating relationships, whose ages ranged from 17 to 33 (M=20.90, SD=2.25). Straus' Conflict Tactics Scale and Multidimensional Coping Scale were used in this research. Results indicated that inflictors of dating violence showed higher level of emotion-out and active forgetting, while recipients showed higher level of active forgetting and self-critique as coping strategy. There was 2-way interaction by gender and inflicting dating violence. Female inflictors of dating violence only revealed significant lower level of religious pursuit. Step-wise regression analyses revealed that active forgetting and self-critique were significant predictors of male's inflicting dating violence, whereas only self-critique was significant predictor of female's receiving dating violence. Positive comparison and seeking emotional support were also predictors of both inflicting and receiving dating violence of both males and females. The present findings suggest the useful information for prevention and intervention of violence in dating relationship. (Korean J Str Res 2009;17:71∼80)

• Keywords: Stress, Coping, Gender difference, Dating violence