Violência nas relações de intimidade: Crenças e atitudes de estudantes do ensino secundário

Violence is defined as the threat or intentional use of strength/ power, including acts of physical, psychological or sexual violence, often based on social and cultural stereotypical conceptions. We developed a quantitative and descriptive study to identify beliefs and attitudes that legitimate violence in relationships, using the Scale of Beliefs about Marital Violence (Machado, Matos and Gonçalves, 2006), which measures the level of tolerance/acceptance of physical and psychological hostility carried out in the context of intimate relationships such as marriage. The sum of each factor allows us to understand the beliefs/attitudes about this specific type of violence. 688 students from two high schools were surveyed, with an average age of 17.44 years; 61.30% were male and 38.70% were female. The data were processed using SPSS 18.0. According to the results, a higher percentage (68, 9%), of the surveyed students disagreed with beliefs and attitudes that legitimate violence. The answers of males were more consistent with the legitimation of violence, both on the Global Scale and on each of the factors.