Citation

Goncy EA, Farrell AD, Sullivan TN. J. Youth Adolesc. 2018; 47(3): 501-514.

Affiliation

Virginia Commonwealth University, P.O. Box 842018, Richmond, VA, 23284, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10964-017-0715-3

PMID

28688055

Abstract

Although mounting evidence suggests dating victimization and aggression begin in early adolescence, little work has examined the pattern of these behaviors across this age. This longitudinal study examined trajectories of dating victimization and aggression across middle school using 12 waves of data. A sample of early adolescents (N = 1369, 52.3% girls; 83% African American; 15% Hispanic or Latino) residing in an urban, economically disadvantaged area participated in this study. Youth completed measures of dating victimization and aggression quarterly across the 3 years of middle school. Although results indicated a general trend of increasing dating victimization and aggression across middle school, variation existed for boys and girls. Specifically, girls showed increasing patterns of both, whereas boys remained relatively stable across time. Dating victimization and aggression were also highly correlated across time. These findings support the implementation and refinement of prevention programming aimed at preventing and reducing dating aggression and victimization in middle school.

Language: en

Keywords

Early adolescence; Latent growth modeling; Longitudinal study; Teen dating violence