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Research has consistently shown that attitudes accepting of violence are positively related to teen dating violence (TDV) perpetration, and that experiencing violence is negatively associated with mental wellbeing. However, very little is known about how these variables related to one another over time. Therefore, in the current study, we examine whether early attitudes about violence predict later mental health through adolescents own use of violence. Specifically, we test whether psychological TDV perpetration mediates the effects of acceptance of violence on mental health over time.
Method: Waves 1, 2 and 3 of an ongoing 6-year longitudinal study were used. 1,042 adolescents from 7 public high schools in Texas participated in the study. The sample was 57% female with a mean age of 15.1. Participants self-identified as Hispanic (31%), White (29%), African American (28%), and other (12%). Acceptance of couple violence (Foshee et al., 1996) at wave1, psychological TDV perpetration (Wolfe et al., 2001) at wave 2, and mental health including hostility (SCL-90; Derogatis, 1993), symptoms of anxiety (SCARED; Birmaher et al., 1997), and depression (CES-D 10; Andresen et al., 1994) at wave3. A mediation model with weighted least squares with mean- and variance-adjusted version (WLSMV) method was tested in Mplus 7.11, using structural equation modeling (SEM). Although this study evidenced a high retention rate, 85.2% up to wave 3, full information maximum likelihood method was employed to deal with missingness. SES, interparental violence, lifetime psychological TDV perpetration, and mental health at wave 1 were included as covariates.
Results: The mediation model was acceptable: (χ2 [499] = 1106.9, p= <.05; RMSEA = 0.03, 90% CI = .027, .034; CFI =.96; TLI= .96). As expected, acceptance was positively related to psychological TDV perpetration, b = 0.39, SE = 0.13, p =.002, 95% confidence interval (CI) with bootstrapping method = 0.15, 0.64. Psychological TDV perpetration was positively associated with anxiety (b =0.06 SE = 0.01, p <.001, 95% CI = 0.03, 0.09), depression (b =0.04 SE = 0.01, p =.002, 95% CI = 0.01, 0.07), and hostility (b =0.04, SE = 0.01, p=.007, 95% CI= 0.01, 0.07).
Conclusion: This is among the first studies to examine acceptance of violence, psychological TDV perpetration, and mental health over time. Importantly, psychological TDV perpetration was related to adolescents’ mental health over time. Although early attitudes accepting of violence were not associated with later mental health, this relationship was mediated by psychological TDV perpetration. These findings indicate that TDV prevention programs may benefit from identifying and targeting youth with maladaptive beliefs about violence (e.g., youth exposed to community or parent-to-parent violence).