Prevalence, Patterns, and Mental Health Correlates of Dating Aggression Among Urban Middle School Youth

The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and patterns of dating aggression (perpetration and victimization) in low-income, urban early adolescents and examine differences by sex, grade, and season. Participants were students in three urban public middle schools who reported having a boyfriend or girlfriend in the past three months (n = 938). The sample (M = 13.3 years old) was 52% female, 73% African American, 15% multi-racial, 4% White, and 8% other races; 13% reported their ethnicity as Hispanic or Latino. Participants reported their frequency of experiencing and perpetrating ten dating aggression behaviors. Latent class analysis was used to identify patterns of dating aggression perpetration and victimization. The best fitting model was a five-class model that classified youth as Uninvolved (54.6%), Victims (8.3%), Aggressors (9.7%), Psychologically Aggressive Victims (22.0%), and Aggressive Victims (5.4%). Differences across these groups were found on sex and grade, but not across time of the year. Groups also differed on measures of trauma symptoms and problem behaviors, with Victims, Psychologically Aggressive Victims, and Aggressive Victims reporting more trauma symptoms, and Aggressors and Aggressive Victims reporting higher frequencies of physical aggression. These findings suggest that dating aggression occurs in middle school with youth experiencing differing levels and types of involvement and relations to mental health symptoms. These results support the need for prevention and intervention programs focusing on early adolescence, particularly to prevent trauma symptoms and problem behaviors, such as physical aggression.