Beliefs about intimate partner violence: gender and generation effects

The purpose of the current study is to examine beliefs about intimate partner violence (IPV) in a sample of the Portuguese general population, by comparing the level of IPV legitimization between men and women and analyzing how it varies with age. We also intend to explore if gender differences in beliefs about IPV are influenced by a generation effect. A total of 2.029 participants, 953 male (47%) and 1076 female (53%), aged 18 to 100 (M=37.76; SD=18.18), selected by convenience sampling, responded to the Scale of Beliefs about Marital Violence (ECVC; Machado, Matos, & Goncalves, 2007), a Portuguese self-report scale on beliefs about IPV. Results confirmed that men have significantly higher levels of IPV legitimization than women and that IPV legitimization rises from younger to older generation groups. More interestingly, we found that generation interacted with gender on the level of IPV legitimization. In all generation groups men had significant higher scores than women, except for the generation of women over 68 – the oldest - who had similar levels of IPV acceptance than those of men from the same generation group. Findings show that we can be optimistic about the social evolution of beliefs on IPV, but shed light on how older women can be particularly vulnerable to victimization, thus reinforcing the importance of targeting IPV prevention by gender and generation. Higher awareness may not be enough to counteract the rise in IPV statistics, but works in favour of an increased reporting, gradually giving voice to a once silent crime.