Attitudes Toward Violence and Gender as Predictors of Interpersonal Violence Interventions

Abstract

The purpose of the research was to determine whether attitudes toward violence (ATV) and participant sex would influence notions about interpersonal violence (IPV) intervention by university students. It was anticipated those who held stronger cultural and reactive violence attitudes and males would be less in favor of intervention, but it was not certain whether gender or attitudes would be the stronger predictor for intervention approaches. An IPV intervention scale was developed to measure preferred approaches for intervention, which resulted in four approaches (affirmative intervention, no intervention, police intervention, and intervention threshold). A total of 420 university student volunteers completed the IPV intervention questionnaire followed by an ATV scale on an electronic data collection site. Results indicated ATV subtypes were stronger predictors of affirmative intervention than gender, but when considering cultural acceptability of violence, gender was the single predictor for a threshold of intervention. The findings have relevance for university and community intervention programs and public policy makers when attempting to alter the acceptability of violence to promote effective interventions.