Physical violence in young Chilean couples: Association with the relationship quality.

Abstract Objective: In Chile, between 7 and 24% of young people claim to be victims of physical violence in their romantic relationships, but there is a lack of validated questionnaires to measure these behaviors and research in this area is still limited. Due to this fact, adapting and validating the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS; Straus, 1979 ; Straus et al., 1996) with multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was conducted in this paper; afterword, it aims to analyze the violence involvement within the young couples (dating violence) in Chile, and its association with the perceived quality of the relationship. Method: 1283 university students participated (69.1% women; 30.9% men; mean age = 21.94; s.d. = 1.871). Results: A bi-factorial model of the CTS (moderate vs severe behaviors) with sex invariance among the youth population in Chile was confirmed. Between 15 and 25% of involvement in moderate violence was pointed out; these behaviors have high percentages of reciprocity and are occasional. The negative quality variables such as imbalance of power or conflicts are related to higher rates of involvement in violence, but not the positive quality variables such as communication. Conclusions: this paper represents a novel contribution for Dating Violence analysis in the Latin American context; it establishes a validated and invariance measure for analyzing Dating Violence with Chilean youth population, and pointed out high rates of involvement on this violent behaviors. Its value for the development of precautionary policies and suitable intervention has to be considered. Highlights • CTS adaptation is a validated and stable instrument for dating violence measurement in the youth population of Chile. • Physical Dating Violence rates in Chile is comparable to some European countries with similar culture characteristics. • The aggressive dynamics established within these couples are mainly correlated with negative relationship quality scales. • The need for education on this subject is clear for avoiding violence and allows people to enjoy love. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]