Interpersonal trust and control victimization in adolescent romantic relationships: The moderating role of jealousy

Controlling behaviors are a prevalent form of dating violence that can emerge as early as adolescence and are often normalized despite their negative consequences for adolescents' well-being. Understanding the relational factors associated with control victimization is essential to inform early prevention efforts.

This dyadic study examined whether jealousy moderates the association between interpersonal trust and control victimization, specifically isolation and domination, in adolescent dating relationships.

Participants included 279 mixed-sex adolescent dyads (M_age = 17.50, SD = 1.29) who completed an online questionnaire.

An Actor-Partner Interdependence Moderation Model (APIMoM) was used to account for dyadic interdependence and to examine actor and partner effects of trust and jealousy on control victimization.

Jealousy moderated the partner effect of trust on isolation victimization. Specifically, higher trust was associated with lower partner-reported isolation victimization only at average and high levels of jealousy, for both boys and girls. No moderation effect emerged for domination. However, higher trust in both partners was associated with lower self- and partner-reported domination victimization. In contrast, higher jealousy in both partners was associated with increased self- and partner-reported domination victimization. The model explained up to 57% of the variance in isolation victimization and 33% in domination victimization.

These findings highlight distinct relational dynamics underlying isolation and domination victimization in adolescent dating relationships. Prevention programs should address not only trust-building processes but also maladaptive expressions of jealousy to reduce controlling behaviors among adolescents.