Assessing Related Factors of Intention to Perpetrate Dating Violence among University Students Using the Theory of Planned Behavior

Wen-Li Hou, Chung-Ying Lin, Yu-Ming Wang, Ying-Hua Tseng and Bih-Ching Shu
Additional contact information
Wen-Li Hou: College of Nursing, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan
Chung-Ying Lin: Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong
Yu-Ming Wang: Department of Psychology, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung 40201, Taiwan
Ying-Hua Tseng: College of Nursing, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan
Bih-Ching Shu: Department of Nursing and Institute of Allied Health Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 3, 1-16

Abstract: Dating violence (DV) is a major public health problem among youth. The majority of DV studies in Taiwan involve the assessment of DV without the use of a robust psychological framework to guide research accuracy. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to utilize the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to assess intention and other salient factors related to DV among university students. A two-phase, mixed-method design study was conducted among university students from seven universities in Taiwan, aged 18 to 24 years. In Phase I, questionnaires used were specifically developed based on the TPB, consisting of both direct and indirect measures related to DV. In Phase ?, questionnaire evaluation and related factors were examined through a two-step process of structural equation modelling (SEM) to test the TPB model. The results of this study found that perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, and attitude toward DV on behavioral intention accounting for 37.5% of the total variance. Among the related factors, attitude toward the behavior was the strongest (β = 0.48, p < 0.001), followed by perceived behavioral control (β = 0.19, p < 0.05). Findings from this study could expand the knowledge base in this important area and might help prevent DV.

Keywords: university student; dating violence; structural equation modelling (SEM); intention; theory of planned behavior (TPB). (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/3/923/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/3/923/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:3:p:923-:d:315527

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().