The results revealed the relationships between the consumption of substances such as alcohol or marijuana, victimization in adolescent dating, and the acceptance of abuse. Likewise, the data analysis revealed that this relationship was affected by the severity (frequency) of the abuses suffered. In this sense, it was found that the adolescents who have been victimized in more than one type of abuse (polyvictims) presented different relationships with substance use and the acceptance of the said abuses depending on whether the polyvictimization occurred in two, three, four, or five or more forms of abuse.

With regard to the analysis of victimization, the data revealed that a large proportion of the adolescents who suffered some type of abuse experienced more than one type of abuse, thus becoming polyvictims. Furthermore, the abuses tended to occur at the same time, with some adolescents being polyvictims in five or more different forms of abuse. Such polyvictims could also be found within in both the group of adolescents who experienced violence “sometimes” and that of those who experienced it “frequently”. Consequently, becoming a polyvictim was not directly related to the frequency of the aggressions, but instead to the situation of being involved in an abusive relationship. This finding refers to the teen dating violence concept itself, which includes among its features the abuses experienced in different modalities (physical, psychological, emotional, etc.) [39]. When these modalities were perpetrated at the same time, the victim became a polyvictim, regardless of the frequency with which these abuses were committed.

Finding polyvictims in the study of aggression and victimization is not an isolated event. Thus, studies carried out in different countries such as the United States, Spain, or Norway have shown the presence of polyvictims in different contexts [6,40,41,42]. However, polyvictimization could be particularly relevant regarding adolescent couples whose characteristics complicate both the detection of, and intervention with, victims due to the different interpretations of abuse. Thus, while physical violence is clearly accepted by all people as being a form of severe abuse, many of the behaviours that do not involve direct physical violence or harassment may be approached with different criteria, thereby blurring the limits of what different people consider to be an abusive relationship [43]. Consequently, the greater presence of psychological or emotional violence in adolescent dating relationships [44] would contribute not only to hiding victimization but also to acceptance by the victims of this type of abuse.

From this perspective, the multiple psychological abuses that many of the polyvictims suffer (harassment, control, blackmail, emotional punishment, etc.) could at times be accepted due to the victim’s interpretation of such behaviour as being normal forms of interaction between the couple’s members. In this regard, the use of moral disengagement is key [45]. Thus, the victims seem to use such mechanisms not only to minimize the importance of the abuse, but also to justify the absence of actions aimed at resolving the problems that arise from their violent dating relationship [5], and possibly from their polyvictimization. Similarly, the normalization of violence, affected by the sexism prevailing in society, influences people by making abusive behaviour be seen as less violent or less serious if these situations are consistent with the behaviour that is expected or permitted [3].

The danger that this fact entails is reflected by the serious consequences that the phenomenon of polyvictimization has for adolescents, including the presence of both internalizing [6,46,47] and externalizing symptoms [48].

With respect to the externalizing signs, the present results indicate that the use of substances predicts polyvictimization. Thus, the results support previous studies which also pointed to this relationship when considering the influence of alcohol on the one hand [49,50] and of marijuana on the other [51,52,53,54]. With the foregoing, the joint use of the two types of substances might increase both polyvictimization and the consequent violence experienced.

The explanation for this link may be found in two different considerations. From one point of view, the use of substances by the victims could be related to coping with problems deriving from their own victimization [55,56]. Substance consumption would then be rather a consequence than a precipitating factor. This fact seems to be especially relevant in victimized adolescent girls whose risk of consuming large amounts of alcohol could be higher [55], and even be more prone to developing problems later that are related to this consumption [57]. The different habits of consumption found in the victims and aggressors seem to be more related to the two groups’ different motivations for consumption than to their role of victim or aggressor in itself [55,58].

From another point of view, the use of substances has been linked to the effects that this consumption has on people, triggering victimization and aggression. Thus, marijuana, for example, has been associated with negative effects such as increased heart rate [59], behavioural disinhibition [60], and difficulties in perception, information processing, and memory [59,61,62,63]. For its part, alcohol has been noted as having similar effects among its users to those indicated for marijuana [12,13,14]. These effects, when interacting with a context of disagreement or criticism within the couple, could foster violent behaviour, as well as a decrease in the capacity to attempt to resolve the conflict [64]. These facts could be even more serious if the couple in question has a prior history of violence and aggression [65].

Based on the above, although these two ways of explaining substance use with respect to victimization (as a predictor or consequence of violence in dating relationships) appear to be contrary in principle, they might be complementary, i.e., the consumption of alcohol and marijuana would be involved both in the onset of abuse, increasing the likelihood and severity of violent incidents [66], and in maintaining it, with the two substances being used as coping tools [55,56].

The ultimate increase in the victims’ acceptance and normalization of abuse has obvious implications for its detection and the consequent interventions. Today’s society, far from presenting an egalitarian orientation, introduces a new concept of neoliberal and globalized masculinity. This carries with it a more twisted and hidden discourse that implies a form of male control which is harder to detect [67]. Similarly, the apparent empowerment of women puts them in a misleadingly favourable liberal position in which adolescent girls, in particular, see themselves in the same position as their male peers [68], having the same kinds of roles and behaviours. However, the difference between the sexes is still present in society to the point of classifying women who consume alcohol as being a lesser degree of victim than those who do not, precisely because such consumption does not conform to the normed vision of what women’s behaviour should be [69,70].

Consequently, the continuous feedback between substance use and violence, and its acceptance, may cause some polyvictims to minimize the importance of their abuse by considering that their behaviour does not conform to what is expected of them. Indeed, it has even been noted that women who use substances and who are victims of aggression tend to be socially blamed for this abuse to a greater extent than those who do not consume that same substance, while at the same time excusing the aggressors who are considered to be less responsible [71]. These facts stand out even more when one additionally takes into account the cultural and social context. It has been pointed out how the prevailing culture in society determines the normalization of abuse to the point of finding a greater presence of interpersonal violence in societies with a strong patriarchal ideology [72,73,74]. This fact is in line with the greater presence of benevolent sexism, in which adolescent boys and girls are today both scoring increasingly higher [75]. Thus, if the acceptance of violence alone determines victimization, the joint relationship of this variable with substance use and the frequency of violence would play a key role in the establishment and maintenance of polyvictimization.