The Culture of Romance as a Factor Associated with Gender Violence in Adolescence

Mar Venegas, José Luis Paniza-Prados, Francisco Romero-Valiente () and Teresa Fernández-Langa
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Mar Venegas: Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Granada, Calle Rector López Argüeta s/n, 18071 Granada, Spain
José Luis Paniza-Prados: Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Granada, Calle Rector López Argüeta s/n, 18071 Granada, Spain
Francisco Romero-Valiente: Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Granada, Calle Rector López Argüeta s/n, 18071 Granada, Spain
Teresa Fernández-Langa: Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Granada, Calle Rector López Argüeta s/n, 18071 Granada, Spain

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-27

Abstract: Despite extensive prevention strategies in Spain since the 1980s, gender-based violence, including among adolescents, remains prevalent, as observed in the Romance SUCC-ED Project (R&D&I Operating Programme ERDF Andalusia 2014–2020). This research study investigates the dimensions, meanings, relationships, and practices shaping the culture of romance in digital Andalusian adolescence (12–16 years) and its potential impact on school trajectories in Compulsory Secondary Education. Based on the premise that equality-focused relationship education is key to preventing gender violence, the study employs an ethnographic methodology with 12 Andalusian school case studies (4 out of them are located in rural areas) and 220 in-depth interviews (126 girls, 57.3%; 94 boys, 42.7%). This article aims to empirically explain gender violence in early adolescence by analysing the culture of romance as an explanatory factor. Findings reveal an interconnected model where dimensions (love, couple, sexuality, pornography, social networks, and cultural references), meanings (constructed by adolescents within each of them), relationships (partner), and practices (control and jealousy) reinforce romanticised femininity and dominant masculinity, thus explaining the high incidence of gender-based violence among students in the study.

Keywords: culture of romance; gender-based violence; adolescence; compulsory secondary education; romanticised love; toxic couple; rape culture; pornification of culture; social networks; romanticisation of culture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:8:p:460-:d:1710205

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