Do Gender and Exposure to Interparental Violence Moderate the Stability of Teen Dating Violence?: Latent Transition Analysis

• NCJ Number: 249578
• Journal: Prevention Science Dated: December 2015 Pages: 1-10
• Date Published: December 2015
• Length: 12 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2012-WG-BX-0005; K23HD059916
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Award: Continuation of Dating It Safe: A Longitudinal Study on Teen Dating Violence

Annotation

This study investigated the development, change, and stability of teen dating violence (TDV) victimization over time.

Abstract

Specifically, this study identified distinct subgroups of adolescents based on past-year TDV victimization, whether adolescents change victimization statuses over time (e.g., from psychological victimization to physical victimization), and how exposure to inter-parental violence and gender influenced the prevalence and stability of TDV statuses. Adolescents (N=1,042) from seven public high schools in Texas participated in this longitudinal study. The Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory (CADRI) (Wolfe et al., Psychological Assessment, 13(2), 277-293, 2001) was used to identify victimization statuses. Latent Transition Analysis (LTA) with measurement invariance was used to examine transition probability of an individual's latent status at Wave 3 or Wave 4 given his or her latent status at Wave 2 or Wave 3. Gender and exposure to inter-parental violence were included as moderators in the LTA. Three statuses of TDV victimization were identified: (1) non-victims; (2) emotional/verbal victims; and (3) physical/psychological victims. LTA showed that the majority of adolescents stayed in the same status over time; however, female youth exposed to inter-parental violence were more likely to move from a less to more severe status over time compared to non-exposed youth. Female youth exposed to inter-parental violence were more likely to remain in or move into a violent relationship compared to unexposed youth. This is the first study to identify subgroups of TDV victimization and to examine the stability of group membership over time. (Publisher abstract modified)