BACKGROUND: Studies reporting similar figures of couple (man-woman) violence and works questioning the validity of the instruments employed have generated controversy about the conceptualization of this construct. One of the critical issues is the different ways of perceiving violence between men and women, as well as its nature in the cultural context. This may affect self-reported answers. METHOD: A questionnaire evaluating the degree of violence perceived in ten kinds of psychological partner abuse was applied. 1750 students from Spain and Mexico, all of them randomly selected, completed it. RESULTS: Through MANOVA, greater perception of violence in the Spanish sample than in the Mexican one was obtained; in both countries, there was a greater perception in women than in men. Effects of gender-culture interaction were obtained in four dimensions: Isolation, Sexual Pressure, Emotional Manipulation, and Dominance. Multidimensional scaling showed two perceived dimensions: (1) "Proactive-Passive Tactics", stronger in the Spanish culture and (2) "Punitive-Emotional Tactics", stronger in the Mexican culture. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm gender-culture effects in perception of psychological violence in the partner.
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