Idealization of intimate partner violence in romantic relationships: examining the role of television's influence on endorsement of controlling behaviors
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Media messages of romantic relationships are prevalent, and these messages can influence how individuals behave in their romantic relationships, as well as influencing scripts and schemas about specific relationship behaviors. Young adults are particularly susceptible to media messages, especially when they are actively seeking messages to learn information about romantic relationships (Bachen and Illouz, 1996). Intimate partner violence (IPV) behaviors are ones that young adults are exposed to in media, even in popular television shows and films. IPV occurs in roughly 20-33 percent of college student dating relationships (e.g., Smith et al, 2005) and is a major public health concern (O'Leary et al., 2008; Zurbriggen, 2009). In the current study, participants were exposed to one of five conditions in a 2 x 2 experiment with a control condition, where relationship behavior (e.g., autonomy-promoting or controlling IPV) and framing of the behavior (e.g., idealized or condemned) were manipulated in clips from popular television programs. Participants then reported on their identification with one of the main characters, self-efficacy of performing both relationship behaviors, third person perceptions, and finally endorsement of both relationship behaviors, in addition to demographic items. The results demonstrated that young adults who viewed the controlling IPV behaviors, especially when those behaviors were condemned by the main female character, were more likely to endorse autonomy-promoting behaviors in relationships. Results also demonstrated that the more individuals consumed media, the more they believed others were more affected by media messages (e.g., third person perception) and this led to greater endorsement of autonomy-promoting behaviors. The main findings and implications are discussed, as well as future directions for both scholars and practitioners.
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Ph. D.