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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Sonia Jain, MPH¹, S.V. Subramanian, PhD², Beth E. Molnar, ScD¹, and Stephen L. Buka, ScD¹. (1) Dept of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard University School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Ave, 6th floor, Boston, MA 02115, (610) 852-5234, sojain@hsph.harvard.edu, (2) Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, 7th Floor, Boston, MA 02115

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious public health problem that often begins as adolescent dating violence. Studies on IPV have focused primarily on identifying individual and relationship level predictors of IPV among older married couples. Despite mounting evidence that neighborhoods matter for youth development, few have explored whether structural and social processes of neighborhoods affect dating violence during young adulthood. Whether collective efficacy and opportunities in the neighborhood protect boys and girls from engaging in dating violence differentially is also unknown.

Methods: Using longitudinal data on 635 urban adolescents ages 15-18 at baseline, and data collected separately about their neighborhoods, we examined neighborhood-level determinants of dating violence victimization and perpetration, above and beyond individual-level predictors. Data come from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. We hypothesize that the effects of collective efficacy and neighborhood opportunities on adolescent dating violence will vary by gender and prior exposure to family and community violence.

Results: The prevalence of perpetration of IPV was 28.1% among boys and 49.4% among girls. The prevalence of victimization was 39.0% among boys and 34.2% among girls. Preliminary multilevel analyses reveal that there is variation in dating violence perpetration and victimization at the neighborhood-level. We hope to explain this variation in dating violence using neighborhood-level structural and process variables, controlling for neighborhood economic disadvantage and individual-level risk factors.

Conclusions: The results shall help inform community-level strategies to systematically prevent dating violence, in addition to individual and relationship level prevention strategies in use now.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe how neighborhoods influence dating violence.
• Understand how communities, via collective efficacy and opportunities, protect against dating violence.
• Understand the importance of neighborhoods for boys vs. girls.

Keywords: Domestic Violence, Adolescent Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No