Healthy Teens – Dating and dating violence among ninth graders: Student survey and teacher ratings

Purpose: Healthy Teens is a mixed-methods study of students who have been followed from middle to high school. The purpose of this presentation is to describe the prevalence, as well as risk and protective factors, of dating violence among ninth graders participating in the Healthy Teens study, based on students' self reports and teachers' ratings. Methods: The sample consisted of 629 students (47.4% females; 64% were 15 years old; 50% White, 39% Black, 9% Latino) attending high schools in Northeast Georgia. The sample was divided into four mutually exclusive groups: did not date in prior 3 months (35%), dated-no victimization (29%), dated-psychological victimization only (16%), and dated-physical victimization (20%). Based on an ecological model, we compared these four groups on personal (norms about dating, life satisfaction, self-efficacy for alternatives to aggression, drug use, delinquency, and suicidal plans), family (family structure, parental support for aggression and alternatives, positive relationship with parents), school (value on achievement, academic grades, positive experience in school), and peer characteristics (peer deviancy, and positive relationship with peers). Results: The first three groups (no date, dated-no victimization, dated-psychological victimization) did not differ except for academic grades, which were highest in the “no date” group. However, the students who reported physical victimization fared significantly worse in all but one of the variables studied. Conclusions: The results highlight the many ways that students who are victims of dating violence differ from their peers and how these differences are apparent to teachers. The implications for prevention will be discussed.