Ethical and methodological issues in the study of dating violence among young Mexicans: A systematic review

Abstract

Violence in young couples is a serious problem that has drawn the attention of the international scientific community, which led to an increase in the number of studies carried out on the subject in Mexico. For this reason, this systematic review synthesizes the ethical and methodological aspects of studies on dating violence among Mexican youths published in the last two decades. In line with a Prisma protocol, a search was carried out in the Clarivate, Ebsco, Scielo and Scopus databases. Of the total 639 initial references, a total of 12 articles that met the inclusion criteria were analysed through a purification process that was divided into four phases (publication between 2000 and 2019, empirical articles, English or Spanish language, Mexican sample, age group between 17 and 35, and heterosexual couples). Among the main results, the predominance of the quantitative approach, non-experimental and cross-sectional designs, as well as the inclusion of non-probabilistic and non-representative samples were highlighted. Likewise, numerous inconsistencies were found in ethical aspects of psychological research. The results and the methodological implications are discussed, prioritizing the urgency for future studies to correct the mandatory ethical aspects in order to avoid bad practices or risks for the participants.