A Meta-Analytic Review of the Role of Peers in Adolescent Dating Violence

Introduction: Dating violence is of high prevalence among adolescents, and is associated with negative health and developmental outcomes, making it a national public health concern. The literature and prevalence statistics on adolescent dating violence is a relatively new area of research, gaining more attention in the past decade. One of the risk factors that has been highlighted in the literature is the influence of peers, including peer dating violence, antisocial or aggressive peer behavior, and peer victimization. Due to the variety of peer influences and the evolving literature in adolescent dating violence, a meta-analytic review of these peer influences is essential in moving the field forward.

 Methods: A search for articles relevant to the meta-analysis was conducted by searching electronic databases, manually examining online journal databases, checking reference lists of relevant articles, and searching unpublished dissertations. Across the meta-analyses within this study, a total of 26 articles and papers were used, including 27,305 adolescents of diverse backgrounds. Three separate meta-analyses were run for: 1) peer dating violence, 2) antisocial or aggressive peer behaviors, and 3) peer victimization, on adolescent dating violence.

 Results: The effect size for the relation between peer dating violence and individuals’ dating violence was significant (r  = 0.30, 95% CI = 0.24, 0.35, p < .001) in a heterogeneous set of studies (Q = 81.02, p < .001). The effect size for the relation between aggressive and antisocial peer behaviors and individuals’ dating violence was significant (r  = 0.20, 95% CI = 0.08, 0.32, p < .001) in a heterogeneous set of studies (Q = 350.10, p < .001). Finally, the effect size for the relation between peer victimization and individuals’ dating violence was significant (r  = 0.23, 95% CI = 0.12, 0.34, p < .001) in a heterogeneous set of studies (Q = 488.34, p < .001). Moderation analyses revealed a few differential effects by how studies presented analyses by sex and by how studies sampled adolescents.

Conclusions: All three of the peer influences were significantly related to adolescent dating violence, providing support for the idea that peers are major socialization agents during adolescence. These results also suggest that there is a multitude of peer behaviors that may affect adolescent dating violence behaviors. This review is crucial in informing existing dating violence prevention programs, suggesting that peer behaviors should be targeted. The current study allows for a greatly needed synthesis of the literature on peer influences and adolescent dating aggression, a crucial step for prevention science.