Financial Behaviors, Couple-Level Conflict, and Adolescent Relationship Abuse: Longitudinal Results From a Nationally Representative Sample

• NCJ Number: 254216
• Award: Longitudinal Follow-up in the National Survey for Teen Relationships and Violence (STRiV2); A National Probability-Based Household Survey on Teen Dating Violence

Annotation

Drawing on longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of adolescents, the current study examined the extent to which money lending practices, feelings of financial resentment, and exposure to economic control contribute to couple level interactions, and in turn, to conflict that escalates to the point of violence.

Abstract

Financial disagreements have been identified as a significant source of discord in adult relationships; however, limited work has considered whether financial considerations contribute to conflict among younger samples. Findings provide evidence of an association between adolescent financial behaviors and concurrent conflict due to economic considerations. Moreover, conflict due to economic considerations was an important predictor of future adolescent relationship abuse perpetration. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for intervention/prevention efforts. (publisher abstract modified)