Gender differences in the perception of courtship abuse

The purpose of this study was to examine gender differences in the percepti on of courtship abuse. Scenes of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of b oth female and male victims depicted in written vignettes. Two-hundred-fort y male and 240 female college undergraduates rated the vignettes in terms o f nine dimensions, including typicality of the dating situations and the se verity of abuse depicted. The results indicated that there were no signific ant differences between men's and women's ratings of the severity of abusiv e behaviors depicted in the female victim vignettes, regardless of the type of abuse. Women, however, rated the sexual abuse of a woman against a man in the vignette as significantly more abusive than did the male raters. The study also investigated the impact of prior involvement with abuse and fou nd no correlation with current perceptions of courtship abuse, Avenues for future research and implications for intervention are discussed.