Adolescent Attitudes Regarding Dating Relationships Male Version (Davidson, 2005)

• Populations: Adolescents, Young Adults
• Age ranges: 14-19
• Languages: English
• Countries: United States

Items

Subscales

• Coercive Attitudes, 15 items
• Precursors to Coercion, 5 items
• Peer Pressure, 6 items
• Societal Pressure, 5 items
• Support for Healthy Attitudes, 5 Items

Items by subscale:

Coercive Attitudes

• It is OK if guys tell girls they “love them” or “care about them” so that girls will mess around with them (french kissing, touching private parts, oral sex). 
• I believe that girls always say no sex, and that a guy’s role is to change their minds. 
• Being a girl means having to do things they don’t want to do in order to be liked. 
• It is OK for a guy to pressure a girl to drink alcohol or get high to increase his chances of making out with her. 
• Girls respect guys who lay down the law to them. 
• It is OK for a guy to ask his friends to keep tabs (keep track of, keep an eye out) on his girlfriend. 
• “Emotional abuse” or “psychological abuse” is a normal part of dating relationships. 
• It is OK to have sex with a girl even if she does not actually say “yes.” 
• If a girl gets drunk or high at a party, it’s her  own fault if a guy pushes himself on her sexually. 
• It is OK for a girl’s boyfriend to tell her which guys she can and cannot talk to. 
• Girls tease guys sexually and that explains why girls get forced to do things they don’t want to do. 
• Using words to get what you want is a normal part of dating relationships. 
• It is not coercive when guys keep asking girls over and over to do more sexual things with them. 
• Guys getting a little physically rough with girls is just a normal part of dating relationships. 
• Girls say “no” a few times to doing sexual things, but eventually they say “yes.”

Precursors to Coercion

• It is a sign of caring when a guy insists on knowing where his girlfriend is at every moment. 
• It is normal for a girl’s boyfriend to want to know where she is at all times. 
• When a boyfriend is jealous, it means he cares about the relationship. 
• When a guy gets jealous when his girlfriend is talking to another guy, it shows he really likes her. 
• If my girlfriend really loved me, she would want to spend all of her time with me. 

Peer Pressure

• Guys pressure their guy friends into being sexually active.
• The peer pressure to not be a virgin is very strong.
• Scoring with as many girls as possible makes guys more popular.
• I believe that if my girlfriend really respects me, she will want me to make my own decisions.
• When I hang out with my friends, we often talk about sexual things like making out, hooking up, having sex, etc.
• The old double standard still exists—guys who have sex are seen as studs, girls who have sex are seen as sluts.

Societal Pressure

• It seems like everywhere I look, I am being given messages to have sex.
• The lyrics of today’s songs make me feel like everyone is sexually active.
• Violence is such a big part of our society and becomes a part of many people’s relationships.
• Music videos show girls wanting to be forced into sex.
• Guys threaten to break up with girls if girls don’t do sexual things with them.

Support for healthy attitudes

• My teachers have taught me to respect myself and my body.
• My family has instilled values in me about dating relationships and sexual behavior.
• Religious values help teenagers determine what they will do sexually.
• Most parents have talked to their teenagers about healthy dating relationships. 
• Most teens think about what their parents have taught them when in a sexual situation. 

Responses

Items use a six-point response format (1 = Strongly Agree to 6 = Strongly Disagree) without a midpoint.

Scoring

“In terms of scoring procedures, negatively worded items were reversed scored and then all item scores were summed. Higher scores indicate more positive attitudes (anti-coercion) regarding dating relationships” (Davidson, 2005)

Citations

Davidson, M. M. (2005). Adolescent Attitudes Regarding Dating Relationships: the Construction of Sex-Specific Scales [Doctoral Dissertation, University of Missouri-Columbia]. ProQuest Dissertation Publishing.

Team comments

This scale was developed alongside Adolescent Attitudes Regarding Dating Relationships Female Version (Davidson, 2005)