Perpetration of violence in dating relationships among Israeli college students: gender differences, personal and interpersonal risk factors

This study investigated dating violence (DV) among Israeli college students, focusing on gender differences and personal and interpersonal risk factors. We examined the perpetration prevalence of physical assault and psychological aggression and compared the risk factors among four possible perpetrator–victim groups: male-only DV; female-only DV, bidirectional DV; and no DV. We explored whether the association between personal risk factors and perpetration is mediated by interpersonal risk factors and moderated by students’ gender in a sample of 1,037 Israeli students who completed self-report questionnaires. Chi-square and One-way ANOVA tests, Pearson’s correlations, and multiple regressions within PROCESS macro were used to analyze the data. We found no gender differences in the perpetration rate of physical assault or psychological aggression. In addition, we found no differences in the risk factors between the male-only DV group and the female-only DV group. However, we found direct associations between personal risk factors and perpetration of physical assault; direct associations between interpersonal risk factors and psychological aggression; and no substantial moderation of gender within the indirect associations. Results largely supported the “gender symmetry” paradigm in the perpetration of DV among Israeli college students, with differential role of personal and interpersonal risk factors in physical assault and psychological aggression.