Physical Dating Aggression in adolescence: cultural and gender invariance

The present study aims to investigate the latent structure of a Physical Dating Aggression Scale in Italian and Canadian adolescents and to evaluate the measurement invariance across gender and country. Participants involved 1,628 adolescents (704 Italians and 924 Canadians; 800 males and 828 females) aged 14–16 years. A revised version of the CTS Physical Aggression Scale (Straus, 1979) modified to make the items more acceptable to younger teens was used. Results from Single-Group confirmatory factor analysis supported a monodimensional structure as the most parsimonious index of Physical Dating Aggression. Furthermore, Multiple-Group analyses conducted through different tests (across gender in each country separately, across country in each gender separately, and across country on the whole sample) showed a substantial factorial invariance. Results are discussed in relation to age, gender, and cultural issues on Physical Dating Aggression