Online Program

335864
Individual characteristics and family and neighborhood physical violence as predictors of cross-generational dating violence


Monday, November 2, 2015

James McDonell, PhD, Institute on Family & Neighborhood Life, Clemson University, Clemson, SC
Natallia Sianko, PhD, Institute on Family & Neighborhood Life, Clemson University, Clemson, SC
Jasmine Hedge, Institute on Family & Neighborhood Life, Clemson University, Clemson, SC
Amanda McDougald, Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life, Clemson University, Clemson, SC
Lyudmyla Tsykalova, Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life, Clemson University, Clemson, SC
Margaret Mitchell, MSW, Chesterfield County Coordinating Council, Chesterfield, SC
Stacee Mosier, Chesterfield County Coordinating Council, Chesterfield, SC
Sharon Sweatt, Chesterfield County Coordinating Council, Chesterfield, SC
Background/Purpose: Dating violence is a critical public health issue, affecting 1/3 of teens and 2/5 of adults.  While intimate partner violence research is growing, there is little data on dating violence across generations in the same family.  This presentation reports an analysis of individual, family, and neighborhood factors, including physical violence, predicting dating violence among adolescent and caregiver pairs in a rural sample.

Methods:  A survey gathered data on individual, family, and neighborhood characteristics in a sample of 287 teens and an adult caregiver.  Multinomial logistic regression modeled multilevel factors predicting dating violence among female adolescents only, female caregivers only, and female adolescent/caregiver pairs.

Results:  Teens were 12.9 and caregivers 39.6 years old on average, the majority racial/ethnic minorities. The caregiver was the mother in 90% of cases. The teen alone had been a victim of dating violence in 4.2% of cases, the caregiver alone in 42.5% of cases, and both the teen and the caregiver in 5.3% of cases. Among the factors predicting dating violence were parenting style, family violence, attitudes towards violence, depression, alcohol use, knowing someone who had experienced dating or family violence, neighborhood social characteristics, and the neighborhood-level rate of mental health hospitalizations.

Conclusions:  Rates of dating violence among teens and caregivers are consistent with national data.  Revealing is the extent to which teens and related adults both experienced dating violence.  The study differentiates individual, family, and neighborhood factors predictive of dating violence among teens and adult caregivers alone and among related teen and caregiver pairs.

Learning Areas:

Other professions or practice related to public health
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Program planning
Public health or related education
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Evaluate individual, family, and neighborhood factors implicated in cross- generational dating violence. Differentiate among factors influencing dating violence for teens and caregivers alone and for teen and caregiver pairs. Critically assess the public health implications of teen dating violence.

Keyword(s): Youth Violence, Domestic Violence

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the principal or co-principal investigator on multiple federally funded projects focused on dating violence, child maltreatment, and related issues. Among my scientific interests are multi-level indicators of child and family safety and well-being.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3306.0: Violence Related Injuries