Objective  To examine the prevalence of dating violence and to explore associations of self-control and attitude towards dating violence with dating violence perpetration in college students.

  Methods  We recruited 2 264 students in 4 universities in Anhui province using stratified multistage cluster sampling and conducted a self-administered survey with questionnaires on dating violence behaviors and attitudes and self-control scale-short form from March to June 2018.

  Results  Among all the students, 68.77% reported experiencing dating violence during past one year and significantly higher proportion of female students than the male students (73.68% vs. 62.88%, P < 0.05) and of junior and senior students than freshmen and sophomores reported dating violence experiences (P < 0.05). Of the self-reported dating violence perpetrators, 70.26% had the violent behavior 3 or more times during past one year and 78.68%, 57.88%, and 9.57% reported dating-related mental, physical, and sexual abuse; the female dating violence perpetrators reported significantly higher ratio of mental abuse than the males (χ² = 16.492, P = 0.016) but the male perpetrators reported a significantly higher ratio of sexual coercion than the female perpetrators (χ² = 11.02, P < 0.001). One of main reasons for the occurrences of dating violence was poor communication when dealing with a disagreement (reported by 65.06% of the perpetrators), followed by being lack of self-respect and respect for others or misbehavior (57.29%), unpunctuality or not keeping a promise (52.41%). Compared with the non-perpetrators, the perpetrators had a significantly lower score of self-control (t = 2.89, P = 0.016) and a higher score for attitude towards dating violence (t = 6.85, P < 0.001).

  Conclusion  Dating violence is prevalent and associates with low self-control ability and attitude towards dating violence among college students in Anhui province.