Sexism, violence legitimation and social representations of dating relationship, among young Italians.

Gender-based violence is a phenomenon that affects both men and women from every walk of life. It exists in all countries, cultures, classes, ethnic groups, regardless of degree of education, income level, and age. Research literature reveals that gender-based violence occurs not only among adult people, but is now also increasing among young adolescents. The study of this phenomenon among young adolescents allows us to investigate two important aspects: a) to analyse how young people, who are just starting to experience first intimate relationships, represent and experience asymmetries between men and women, and b) to detect if their way of perceiving and being in a relationship, constitute a possible ground for violence. To explore relationship between these psychological dimensions, provide important clues for the prevention of gender-based violence. Research methodology presents an integration of two kind of approaches to the problem: a quantitative (sexist attitudes and beliefs scales) and a qualitative one (social knowledge and opinions). In particular, we explore possible interdependencies between the Questionnaire of Attitudes towards Diversity and Violence, the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory and one of the typical techniques used in the study of Social representations: the hierarchized evocations. The study involved 253 adolescents aged between 16 and 19 (Md = 17.73; St.Dev. = .925); 54.5% males (n = 138) and 45.5% females (n = 115) in several high schools of the city of Naples. The results show that sexism variables are related to each other and to an idealized representation of love and couple, both in boys and girls. We discuss the importance of prevention programs being appropriately developed also using mixed methods which can provide keys to prevent sexist violence at an early age.