Beliefs on Marital Violence and Self-Reported Dating Violence: A Comparative Study of Cape Verdean and Portuguese Adolescents.

In this study, we compare Portuguese and Cape Verdean youths' upholding of traditional beliefs about intimate partner violence (IPV) and the frequency of self-reported violent behavior in dating relationships. The sample (n = 404) consisted of 183 Cape Verdean and 221 Portuguese secondary school students of both sexes (56 % female; mean age = 16). We used two questionnaires that had previously been validated in the Portuguese population. The results revealed that young Cape Verdean adolescents uphold stronger traditional beliefs than Portuguese adolescents do, but there were no differences in overall prevalence of abuse between the two samples. The relationship between traditional beliefs and self-reported violence was significant only in the Cape Verdean sample, suggesting that campaigns against IPV have not, so far, been as effective in Cape Verde as in Portugal. © Springer International Publishing 2016.