Resumen de Family and intimate partner violence among Puerto Rican university students

Ángel Villafañe Santiago, José Serra Taylor, María I. Jiménez Chafey, Carol Y. Irizarry Robles

• While the intergenerational transmission of violence has been widely studied in the United States and other countries, this problem has not been studied with a large sample in Puerto Rico. We aim to explore the prevalence and relationship between family and intimate partner violence among Puerto Rican university students and establish comparisons by sex. The convenience sample consisted of 3,951 students from the eleven campuses of the University of Puerto Rico who completed the Experiences of Violence in Couple and Family Relations in University Students Questionnaire (Villafañe-Santiago, Jiménez-Chafey, De Jesús, & Vázquez, 2012) and a sociodemographic questionnaire. Analysis included frequencies, arithmetic mean, t tests, the Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regression Coefficients. Psychological violence was the most frequent form of violence. Men received more physical violence during their upbringing than women. In intimate relationships, women exerted more controlling behavior, verbal violence and threats, while men exerted more physical violence. Correlation and regression analysis support the intergenerational transmission of violence theory for this population. Results suggest that violence is a frequent problem in this population and that violence experienced during upbringing is significantly related to violence in subsequent relationships.