INTERNATIONAL DATING VIOLENCE STUDY

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ADMINISTRATION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE AT MORE THAN UNIVERSITY

This can have two advantages: (1) It increases the sample size. (2) It enables you to make comparisons between universities when it is meaningful to do so, as for example when they represent difference language groups or regions.

If you do this, use the space on the answer sheet for question 300 to indicate the sites where you administered the questionnaire. For example, if you tested at three universities, mark all the answer sheets from students at the university as a 1 in question 300, mark all the answer sheets from students at the second university as 2 in question 300, and all the answer sheets from students at the second university as 3 in question 300. When you send me the answer sheets let me know the name of university 1, the name of university 2, and the name of university 3. This will permit me to enter those names into the computer file that I send you.

DATING IN ARRANGED-MARRIAGE SOCIETIES

I have been corresponding with consortium members from countries where marriages are arranged by parents and therefore, presumable, there is no dating. However, my experience in India and Sri Lanka, makes me guess that a number of students will have friends of the opposite sex with whom they spend time because of mutual attraction. Thus, at least some students date in the sense that they find ways of spending time together, but may do so privately. I am not sure about this because it was not an issue that I studied when I was teaching in those countries.

This memo deals with that situation by first defining dating and then making suggestions based on that definition.

DEFINITION OF DATING For purposes of the IDV study “dating” is defined as a dyadic relationship involving meeting for social interaction and joint activities and an explicit or implicit intention to continue the relationship until one or the other party terminates or until some other more committed relationship is established such as cohabiting, engagement, or marriage.

The concept of “dating” as it is known in the USA is foreign to many cultures and the social norms for dating, and actual dating behavior, differ according to many dimensions, including individual differences, racial/ethnic and socioeconomic group differences, historical era, and cultural context. In the American cultural context, dating implies individual choice of partners, but that is not an essential part of the phenomenon being address in this study.

Despite these differences, there are also some inherent structural similarities; for example, it is a dyadic relationship and the parties usually invest time and energy. Therefore social interactional process typical of dyads are likely to apply regardless of whether the relationship was arranged by parents or friends, by newspaper or by internet, or by one party personally initiating the development of a relationship. Further, if the relationship continues beyond the initial date, it implies the possibility of mutual attraction, ego involvement, and the possibility of becoming a more committed type of pair relationship. Thus, the principles of theories such as exchange theory and conflict theory could apply to these types of relationships (whatever, they are named) in the cultural contexts to be studied.

Evidence indicating that at least some characteristics apply cross-nationally comes from a study of undergraduates in North Carolina and at the National Taiwan University (Lin Yuan-Huei & Rusbult, 1995). They found that in both countries, students were more committed to their partners when they were satisfied with the relationship and if they perceived a high degree of investment in the relationship. They concluded that the same basic processes were involved in changing to a more committed type of relationship.

CULTURALLY MEANINGFUL QUESTIONNAIRE EXPLANATION. I suggest that this issue be dealt with by first conducting exploratory conversations with a few students to understand their views and perceptions of relationships between male and female students. You can use this information as part of the basis for writing a brief paragraph for the cover page of the questionnaire explaining the kind of relationships you would like them to describe. The paragraph might include in as part of the explanation "a friend from the opposite sex that that you spend a lot of time with on/off campus” and could say that the relationship it does not necessarily involve a physical (i.e., sexual) relationship.

PROPORTION OF STUDENTS ARE IN A RELATIONSHIP. An interesting and important issue that you will be able to investigate is the proportion of students in a dating relationship at your site or sites. That is, one of the interesting results of the study will be how many report being in such a relationship. For some groups there may not be any who admit to dating (or whatever term or phase you decide on). That would be a finding of the study! Of course, it will also depend on how you explain the kind of relationship that has to be present in order for them to answer about a dating relationship.

BRIEF “DATING DESCRIPTION” QUESTIONNAIRE. The above discussion suggests that a valuable addition to the study would be to get a better picture of what dating is for students at your site by asking students to complete a one-page questionnaire that you can the Dating Description Questionnaire. This would take about ten minutes and would ask a series of open-ended questions about their relationship with the person of the opposite sex with whom they spend the most time.

QUESTIONS FOR THE DATING DESCRIPTION QUESTIONNAIRE. The questions could include the following:

Where do you spend time together?

How much time they spend together in a typical week?

Do you feel romantically attracted to this person?

If you are romantically attracted, how strong is the attraction?

Have you thought of the possibility of marrying this person?

ADMINISTRATION OF THE DATING DESCRIPTION QUESTIONNAIRE. Because this questionnaire will probably take only about 10 minutes, it could given just before the main IDV study questionnaire, provided the class period is longer than the 50 minutes it takes to complete the standard questionnaire. If only a 50-minute class period is available, then the Dating Description Questionnaire can be done on a day before the IDV study questionnaire. The only disadvantage to giving it separately is that there will not be a practical way to link the one-page questionnaire with the IDV study questionnaire, but it is not crucial to link them.

If the Dating Description Questionnaire is administered at the same time as the IDV study questionnaire, the two can be linked by marking the Dating Description Questionnaire with the number that is on the Answer Sheet, and distributing them together.

USE LOCALLY SALIENT QUESTIONS TO DESCRIBE DATING. If you have not already committed to using these final questions for another purpose, they could be used to ask questions describing a dating relationship similar to those listed above. However, the questions have to be written in a way that lets the students respond by marking an answer number. In the case of a question such as “Where do you spend time together?” the question can permit a respondent to “mark all that apply.”