Redefining Trauma-Informed Assessments for Teen Dating Violence: An Introduction to the VIP Study

Mandates for risk assessment protocols to be trauma-informed are now common across juvenile justice and school settings. However, there is little direction on how to best translate this mandate into evidence-based screening and assessment tools. This presentation will describe the theoretical model underpinning the Vulnerability, Impairment, and Promotive factors (VIP) Study, which seeks to offer an alternative to existing risk assessment approaches in vulnerable adolescents. Using teen dating violence (TDV) as our criterion, we show preliminary evidence on how using dynamic, latent vulnerabilities stemming from trauma-exposure may lead to accurate and more equitable assessments of risk for TDV compared to prevailing practices. Findings from the VIP Study will be discussed, as well as translational implications and aims for the upcoming follow-up study.