Risk and protective factors distinguishing profiles of adolescent peer and dating violence perpetration

Violence profiles were created on the basis of whether adolescents used violence against both peers and dates, against dates but not peers, against peers but not dates, or against neither peers nor dates. We determined (1) whether risk and protective factors from five domains (individual attributes and behaviors, the peer, family, school, and neighborhood contexts), based primarily on social learning and social control theories, were associated with violence profiles, (2) whether factors distinguishing profiles varied by gender, and (3) which of the domains was most important in distinguishing profiles.

Data are from adolescents in grades 8 through 10 from schools in three nonmetropolitan Counties (n = 2,907).

Adolescents who used violence against both peers and dates used more of each type of violence compared with those who used only one type of violence. They also had more maladaptive risk and protective scores than adolescents perpetrating only peer violence or neither type of violence, although they had few differences from those perpetrating only dating violence. Most social learning theory risk factors and social control theory protective factors distinguished the profiles as did psychological attributes and substance use. Factors distinguishing profile membership were generally the same for boys and girls, although some associations were stronger for boys than for girls. The model fit statistics suggest that the individual attributes and behaviors and the peer context models fit the data the best.

Suggestions for developing theoretically based interventions for preventing both peer and dating violence are presented.