Gender-based Violence Within the Framework of Intersectionality: Co-occurrence of Attitudes Toward Gender-based Violence,Cisheteronormativity,Racism,and Ageism

Abstract

The analysis of gender-based violence (hereafter, GBV) in adolescence is essential because love ideals are formed at this stage, as well as a modus operandi that can be normalized. This study aimed to assess the joint influence of cisheteronormativity, including gender stereotypes, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia, as well as racism and ageism, on attitudes toward GBV. For this purpose, a correlational and cross-sectional study was conducted in which 1,062 Spanish adolescents from Compulsory Secondary Education (ISCED 3) participated, representing the reference population. Of them, 49.9% identified as a girl, 48.6% as a boy, and 1.2% with other gender identity options. Their mean age was 15.25 years. Hierarchical linear regression analysis was conducted, revealing that, for both girls and boys, students who express greater support for GBV also manifest significantly more homophobic and transphobic attitudes, as well as more racial prejudice and more hostile ageism. In addition, in the case of girls, those who are more instrumental also express greater acceptance of GBV. In the case of boys, older boys and less benevolent sexist boys also express greater support for GBV. These variables explain 27.7% of the variance in attitudes toward GBV in girls and 36.1% in boys. The results show the need to implement a critical, queer, and intersectional pedagogy in schools that would contribute to the understanding and prevention of violence from a problematizing perspective, attending to the role of differential gender socialization in the formation of interconnected prejudices that conjointly produce discourses and practices of otherness and violence among adolescents.