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The purpose of the current investigation was to examine forgiveness and intimate partner violence (IPV) among college women. Undergraduate women (N = 502) participated in an online study in which overall experiences of IPV, as well as experiences of psychological and physical IPV, were investigated with respect to transgression-specific and dispositional forgiveness. Simultaneous multivariate regressions revealed that (a) the experience of IPV was associated with higher levels of avoidance and revenge, and lower levels of benevolence, forgiveness of self, forgiveness of others, and forgiveness of uncontrollable situations; (b) types of IPV demonstrated differing impacts on forgiveness; and (c) the mere experience of IPV is more salient than its frequency., (© The Author(s) 2014.)

Each year, thousands of female adolescents run away from home due to sexual abuse, yet they continue to be victims of sexual assault once on the street. To date, few studies have examined how various forms of victimization are related to different types of substance use. The purpose of this article is to investigate the relationship between street exposure, childhood abuse, and different forms of street victimization with alcohol and marijuana use among 137 homeless and runaway female adolescents. Results from path analysis revealed that child sexual abuse was positively linked to trading sex and sexual and physical victimization. In addition, those who have traded sex experienced greater physical victimization, and who have spent more time away from home, used alcohol more frequently. Moreover, trading sex and experiencing more types of sexual victimization were positively linked to more frequent marijuana usage. Age, age at first run, longest time away from home, sexual abuse, and trading sex had significant indirect effects on alcohol and/or marijuana use. Together, these factors accounted for 27% of the variance in alcohol use and 37% of the variance in marijuana use.

Youth violence represents a serious problem affecting individuals, communities, and the larger society. Greater efforts aimed at the eradication of youth violence are necessary, and work in this field could be enhanced by psychometrically strong measures. The present study examined the factor structure of the Attitudes Toward Violence Scale (ATV) using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with a sample of 359 high school students. A three-factor structure was identified. The three factors were invariant across sex, however, males obtained significantly higher scores on the three ATV factors and on the ATV total score showing generally moderate effect sizes. Directions for future research with the ATV are discussed.