The Inextricable and Temporal Link Between Dating Violence and Alcohol Use

Introduction: Although the link between alcohol use and dating violence (DV) is well established, their longitudinal association is less understood. To address this gap in knowledge, we examine 1) whether there are distinct subgroups based on past-year DV and alcohol use and 2) whether female adolescents change DV and alcohol use classes over time.

Method: Waves 2, 3, and 4 of an ongoing 6-year longitudinal study were used. 550 female adolescents from 7 public high schools in Texas participated in the study (Wave 2 mean age=16.1, SD=.79). Approximately one third of participants self-identified their racial/ethnic background as Hispanic, White, or African American. The Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory (Wolfe et al., 2001) and yearly alcohol use, monthly alcohol use, and episodic heavy drinking were used to identify Latent DV and alcohol use classes. Latent Transition Analysis (LTA) with measurement invariance was used to examine transition probability of an individual’s latent status at Wave 3(4) given their latent status at Wave 2(3).

Results: Five DV and alcohol-user classes were identified: 1) Not-involved/users (NIU, 28.5% at W2, 30.9% at W3, 26.4%at W4); 2) Only Psychological Abuse involved (PsyI, 15% at w2, 14% at w3, 7.8% at W4); 3) Psychological abuse-involved alcohol users (PsyAU, 18.5% at w2, 16.9% at w3, 21.6% at w4), 4) Only Alcohol Users (AU, 23.6% at w2, 24.4% at w3, 30.5% at w4), and 5) Psychological and Physically-involved alcohol users (PsyPhyAU, 14.1% at w2, 16% at w3, 13.6%). LTA showed that the majority of females stayed in the same class over time. When AU moved to different classes, they were more likely to transition to PsyAU across waves. When PsyI moved to different classes, they were more likely to transition to either NIU or PsyPhyAU. Also, PsyAU were more likely to move to either AU or PsyPhyAU from wave2 to 3 whereas PsyAU were most likely to move to AU only from wave 3 to 4. However, PsyPhyAU were more likely to move to either AU or PsyI from wave2 to 3 while PsyPhyAU were more likely to move to PsyAU or AU from wave3 to 4.

Discussion: Most female adolescents remained in the same DV/alcohol class over time. When a change did occur, it was generally to a more severe class. Interventions will benefit by targeting DV and alcohol use or, more efficiently, targeting the shared risk and protective factors of both behaviors before either begins.