Individual, Family, and Community Level Risk and Protective Factors for Teen Dating Violence Perpetration

Research has identified substance use and high-risk sexual behavior as risk factors for teen dating violence (TDV) among adolescents; however, these associations have lacked consistent support in the literature. It is unclear how these risk factors interact with each other and with risk and protective factors at outer layers of the social ecology (i.e., parental supervision and neighborhood disorganization). A sample of 1,236 adolescents (52% female) randomly selected from 16 schools completed surveys of student attitudes and experiences in the spring of 2013 and 2014. Schools were stratified into low, moderate, and high risk based on level of “concentrated disadvantage” of their community (publicly available crime data, census data, and school-provided academic records) with oversampling in the high risk schools. In the first year, 26% perpetrated physical TDV, 6% sexual TDV, and 53% electronic TDV (cell phones, social media, etc.) against a dating partner. Twenty-two percent used alcohol, 12% marijuana, and 2% other drugs. Approximately one in five had engaged in sexting (21%), oral sex (20%), and sexual intercourse (17%). Poverty, community crime rates, and neighborhood disorganization were related to higher rates of substance use, risky sexual behavior, and attendant TDV perpetration. Substance use and sexual behavior were found to be related to increased rates of TDV perpetration in the second year of data collection. However, parental supervision was found to be a significant protective factor, associated with reduced rates of all behavioral outcomes. The research indicates that prevention programming may demonstrate increased effectiveness by addressing the interrelationships of each of these risky behaviors. In particular, parental supervision and associated parenting strategies may be most fruitful in preventing negative health outcomes.