Totten
Totten (2003)
Qualitative study on girlfriend abuse among violent marginal male youth in Canada
Aim:
To explore how young girlfriend abusers used violence to construct their masculinity. The study focused on how families and peer groups contributed to learning and identification with violent norms as part of establishing a masculine gender role.
Procedure:
- A purposive sample of 30 abusive adolescent males from a large city in Canada participated in the study. They all had pro-abusive beliefs, masculine ideals, and admitted to using violence towards their girlfriends.
- The mean age of the boys was 15.6 years, six belonged to an ethnic minority and the rest were white. Many were gang members and most had dropped out of school early. The researchers used semi-structured interviews to collect data.
Results:
The adolescents’ background had similar features. They had all been exposed to violent behavior in the family and they saw this as justified and even necessary. The fathers all had rigid authoritarian beliefs (e.g. rigid gender roles). The fathers all used violence to control family members or to defend their honor.
Out of 30 adolescents, 21 had adopted violent behavior. They were all abusive and used physical and sexual violence for the same reasons as the fathers. The boys said that they had the right to use violence if girlfriends did not behave. In some cases the fathers had given them instructions on how to abuse women in particular situations.
Evaluation:
The study used a small and purposive sample so it is not possible to generalize. The qualitative data gave an in-depth insight into how the violent adolescents experienced the use of violence themselves. This could be used as a starting point to design interventions to prevent violence, such as by providing positive role models (mentoring) as well as education and job opportunities.