Personal and Social Contextual Correlates of Adolescent Dating Violence

Purpose: To examine the association of dating violence with personal and social contextual factors among a sample of 12- to 17-year-olds enrolled in managed care health plans.

Methods: A sample of 444 youth (45% male; 80% African-American; 38% aged 12-13 years) agreed to participate in an alcohol risk-prevention randomized controlled trial, and completed a survey. Cross-tabulations and calculation of odds ratios were performed to assess associations between dating violence and sociodemographics, religious service attendance, personal alcohol use, peer-drinking exposures and parental monitoring. Logistic regression modeling was used to identify the significant predictors of dating violence.

Results: Seven percent of youth reported recent dating violence. In a logistic regression model, peer-drinking exposures was associated with dating victimization (OR = 3.24; CI = 1.04-10.15). Religious service attendance (OR =0.40; CI = 0.17-0.91) and parental monitoring (OR = 0.41; CI = 0.17-0.99) were protective against dating violence.

Conclusions: Religious service attendance and frequent parental monitoring were associated with a lower prevalence of recent dating violence. Conversely, being in places where one's friends are drinking alcohol was associated with an increased risk of victimization. It may be that dating violence is, in part, mediated by adolescents' important social contacts.