Teen dating violence: the who, what, and when of prevention

Much of the research on teen dating violence has attempted to take the ideas associated with adult domestic violence and intimate partner violence and apply it to teen relationships. This research was conducted to discover the underlying dimensions of teen relationships and the violence that exists in these relationships in order to provide a conceptual idea of who should be targeted, with what information, and at what age with prevention efforts aimed at reducing teen dating violence. Wichita Kansas has implemented a variety of prevention and intervention strategies aimed at reducing the prevalence of teen dating violence in the community for almost a decade. Participants in this study were recruited from 6th through 10th graders who were scheduled to receive intervention curriculum in their schools. Several items from the General Youth Relationship Survey-Student Version (Hertzog, Matson, & Rowley) were analyzed using factor analysis to discover the underlying dimensions of teen dating violence. Physical/emotional abuse, monitoring and controlling behaviors, and relational entitlements were the key dimensions gleaned from this analysis. An examination of the factor score means with several student characteristics were also analyzed. Girls were found to witness more teen dating violence in their friend’s relationships as well as hold more agreement with relational entitlements than boys. African American teens were more likely to report witnessing teen dating violence than Hispanic or white teens; however, Hispanic teens were more likely to report that a person has certain relational entitlements over their partner. This study also found that, in order to provide actual prevention, efforts should be targeted towards late elementary to early middle school-aged students.

Author

• Rowley, Rochelle

Identifier

hdl:10057/5365

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:soar.wichita.edu:10057/5365