Abstract
This study examined the association between attitudes about dating aggression and select dating aggressive behaviors (verbal aggression and jealous behavior) in high school students. Our hypothesis, derived from cognitive dissonance theory, was that discrepancies between self-reported attitudes and aggressive behavior at Time 1 (i.e., putative cognitive dissonance) would predict decreases in aggression between Time 1 and Time 2 beyond what would be predicted by change in attitudes over the same period. Results indicated that cognitive dissonance (as indexed by the discrepancy between attitudes and behavior) was generally a significant predictor of behavior change, providing significant improvement in prediction of behavior over attitude change alone. We discuss the implications of these findings for prevention efforts and directions for future research in this area.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1977). Attitude-behavior relationship: A theoretical analysis and review of empirical research. Psychological Bulletin, 84, 888-918.
Arias, I., Samios, M. & O'Leary, K. D. (1987). Prevalence and correlates of physical aggression during courtship. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2, 82-90.
Aronson, E. (1999). Dissonance, hypocrisy, and the self-concept. In E. Harmon-Jones, & J. Mills (Eds.), Cognitive dissonance: Progress on a pivotal theory in social psychology (pp. 103-126). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Avery-Leaf, S., Cascardi, M., O'Leary, K. D., & Cano, A. (1997). Efficacy of a dating violence prevention program on attitudes justifying aggression. Journal of Adolescent Health, 21, 11-17.
Bem, D. J. (1967). Self-perception: An alternative interpretation of cognitive dissonance phenomena. Psychological Review, 74, 183-200.
Bergman, L. (1992). Dating violence among high school students. Social Work, 37, 21-27.
Bookwala, J., Frieze, I. H., Smith, C., & Ryan, K. (1992). Predictors of dating violence: A multivariate analysis. Violence and Victims, 7, 297-311.
Breslin, C. F., Riggs, D. S., O'Leary, K. D., & Arias, I. (1990). Family precursors: Expected and actual consequences of dating aggression. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 5, 247-258.
Burcky, W., Reuterman, N., & Kopsky, S. (1988). Dating violence among high school students. School Counselor, 35, 353-358.
Byers, E. S., & Eno, R. J. (1991). Predicting men's sexual coercion and aggression from attitudes, dating history, and sexual response. Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, 4, 55-70.
Cano, A., Avery-Leaf, S., Cascardi, M., & O'Leary, K. D. (1998). Dating Violence in Two High School Samples: Discriminating Variables. Journal of Primary Prevention, 18, 431-446.
Cascardi, M., Langhinrichsen, J., & Vivian, D. (1992). Marital aggression: Impact, injury, and health correlates for husbands and wives. Archives of Internal Medicine, 152, 1178-1184.
Cascardi, M., Avery-Leaf, S., O'Leary, K. D., & Slep, A. M. S. (1999). Factor structure and convergent validity of the Conflict Tactics Scale in high school students. Psychological Assessment, 11, 546-555.
Cooper, J. (1999). Unwanted consequences and the self: In search of the motivation for dissonance reduction. In E. Harmon-Jones, & J. Mills (Eds.). Cognitive dissonance: Progress on a pivotal theory in social psychology (pp. 149-173). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Dickerson, C., Thibodeau, R., Arsonson, E., & Miller, D. (1992). Using cognitive dissonance to encourage water conservation. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 22, 841-854.
Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (1993). The psychology of attitudes. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Foo, L., & Margolin, G. (1996). Amultivariate investigation of dating aggression. Journal of Family Violence, 10, 351-377.
Foshee, V. A., Bauman, K. E., Arriaga, X. B., Helms, R., Koch, G. G., & Linder, G. F. (1998). An evaluation of Safe Dates, and adolescent dating violence prevention program. American Journal of Public Health, 88, 45-50.
Foshee, V. A., Bauman, K. E., Greene, W. F., Koch, G. G., Linder, G. F., & MacDougal, J. E. (2000). The Safe Dates Program: 1-year follow-up results. American Journal of Public Health, 90, 1619-1622.
Foshee, V. A., Linder, G. F., Bauman, K. E., Langwick, S. A., Arriaga, X. B., Heath, J. L., McMahon, P. M., & Bangdiwala, S. (1996). The Safe Dates Project: Theoretical basis, evaluation design, and selected baseline findings. American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 12(Suppl.), 39-47.
Henton, J. M., Cate, R. M., Koval, J., Lloyd, S., & Christopher, F. S. (1983). Romance and violence in dating relationships. Journal of Family Issues, 4, 467-482.
Jaffe, P. G., Sudermann, M., Reitzel, D., & Killip, S. M. (1992). An evaluation of a secondary school primary prevention program on violence in intimate relationships. Violence and Victims, 7, 129-146.
Kasian, M., & Painter, S. L. (1992). Frequency and severity of psychological abuse in a dating population. Journal of Interper-sonal Violence, 7, 350-364.
Kirby, D. (2000). School-based interventions to prevent unprotected sex and HIV among adolescents. In J. L. Peterson, & R. J. DiClemente (Eds.), Handbook of HIV prevention (pp. 83-101). New York: Kluwer Academic.
Lane, K. E., & Gwartney-Gibbs, P. A. (1985). Violence in the context of dating and sex. Journal of Family Issues, 6, 45-59.
Laner, M. R., & Thompson, J. (1982). Abuse and aggression in courting couples. Deviant Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Jour-nal, 3, 229-244.
Lavoie, F., Vèzina, L., Pichè, C., & Boivin, M. (1995). Evaluation of a prevention program for violence in teen dating relationships.Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 10, 516-524.
MacGowan, M. J. (1997). An evaluation of a dating violence prevention program for middle school students. Violence and Victims, 12, 223-235.
Makepeace, J. M. (1981). Courtship violence among college students. Family Relations, 30, 97-102.
Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (2002). Motivational interviewing: Preparing people for change (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford.
National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH] (2000). Translating behavioral science into action: Report of the National Advisory Mental Health Council Behavioral Science Workgroup (NIH Publication No. 00-4699).
O'Brien, M. K., Cascardi, M., & Avery-Leaf, S. (July, 1999). Dis-criminating variables of dating violence in a middle school sample. Paper presented in Symposium (S. Avery-Leaf), "The BRIGHT program: An evaluation of a dating violence pre-vention curriculum in an urban middle school setting" at the 6th International Family Violence Conference, Durham, NH.
O'Keefe, M. (1997). Predictors of dating violence among high school students. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 12, 546-568.
O'Keefe, N. K., Brockopp, K., & Chew, E. (1986). Teen dating vio-lence. Social Work, 31, 465-468.
O'Leary, K. D., Barling, J., Arias, I., Rosenbaum, A., Malone, J., & Tyree, A. (1989). Prevalence and stability of physical ag-gression between spouses. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57, 263-268.
O'Leary, K. D., & Slep, A. M. S. (2003). A dyadic model of adoles-cent dating aggression. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psy-chology. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychology, 32, 314-327.
Paglia, A., & Room, R. (1999). Preventing substance use problems among youth: Aliterature review and recommendations. Jour-nal of Primary Prevention, 20, 3-50
Pederson, P., & Thomas, C. D. (1992). Prevalence and cor-relates of dating violence in a Canadian university sam-ple. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 24, 490-501.
Price, E. L., & Byers, E. S. (1999). The Attitudes Towards Dating Violence Scales: Development and initial validation. Journal of Family Violence, 14, 351-375.
Reitzel-Jaffe, D., & Wolfe, D. A. (2001). Predictors of relationship abuse among young men. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 16, 99-115.
Reuterman, N. A., & Burcky, W. D. (1989). Dating violence in high school: A profile of the victims. Psychology, 26, 1-9.
Riggs, D. S. (1993). Relationship problems and dating aggression: A potential treatment target. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 8, 18-35.
Riggs, D. S., & O'Leary, K. D. (1996). Aggression between het-erosexual dating partners: An examination of a causal model of courtship aggression. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 4, 519-540.
Roscoe, B., & Callahan, J. E. (1983). Adolescent's self report of violence in families and dating relationships. Adolescence, 10, 545-553.
Roscoe, B., & Kelsey, T. (1986). Dating violence among high school students. Psychology: AQuarterly Journal of HumanBehavior, 23, 53-59.
Schumacher, J. A., Slep, A. M. S., & O'Leary, K. D. (1998, Novem-ber). The context and consequences of female to male dating aggression. Poster presented at the 32nd annual convention of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Washington, D.C.
Sigelman, C. K., Berry, C. J., & Wiles, K. A. (1984). Violence in col-lege students' dating relationships. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 5, 530-548.
Slep, A. M. S., Cascardi, M., Avery-Leaf, S., & O'Leary, K. D. (2001). Two new measures of attitudes accepting of teen dating aggres-sion. Psychological Assessment, 13, 306-318.
Stone, J., Aronson, E., Crain, A. L., Winslow, M. P., & Fried, C. B. (1994). Inducing hypocrisy as a means of encouraging young adults to use condoms. Personality and Social Psychology Bul-letin, 20, 116-128.
Straus, M. A. (1979). Measuring intrafamily conflict and violence: The Conflict Tactics (CT) Scales. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 41, 75-86.
Sugarman, D. B., & Frankel, S. L. (1996). Patriachal ideology and wife-assault: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Family Vio-lence, 11, 13-40.
Tolman, R. M. (1989). The development of a measure of psycholog-ical maltreatment of women by their male partners. Violence and Victims, 4, 159-177.
Walker, L. E. (1979). The battered woman. New York: Harper & Row.
White, J. W., & Koss, M. P. (1991). Courtship violence: Incidence in a national sample of higher education students. Violence and Victims, 6, 247-256.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schumacher, J.A., Slep, A.M.S. Attitudes and Dating Aggression: A Cognitive Dissonance Approach. Prev Sci 5, 231–243 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:PREV.0000045357.19100.77
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:PREV.0000045357.19100.77