Abusive Males and Abused Females in Adolescent Relationships: Risk Factor Similarity and Dissimilarity and the Role of Relationship Seriousness

• NCJ Number: 203026
• Journal: Journal of Family Violence Volume: 18 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2003 Pages: 325-339
• Author(s): H. Harrington Cleveland; Veronica M. Herrera; Jeffrey Stuewig
• Date Published: December 2003
• Length: 15 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study of male-to-female physical abuse within adolescent relationships examined both the influence of individual characteristics and the seriousness of the relationship.

Abstract

The analyses used data from 603 such adolescent relationships reported during Wave II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Data on the individual characteristics of both the reporting females and their male partners were obtained from Wave I. In addition to the occurrence of physical abuse, data on the relationship addressed the seriousness of the relationship. Variables pertinent to individual characteristics encompassed family relationships, school adjustment and achievement, sexual behaviors and attitudes, drinking, externalizing behaviors, and internalizing behaviors. Variables relevant to the seriousness of the relationships encompassed such nonsexual features as meeting partners' parents, telling people they were a couple, telling the partner he/she loved her/him, and thinking of the relationship as a commitment to one another. Six individual characteristics of males and six individual characteristics of females predicted male-to-female abuse. Only one of the characteristics, grade point average, was a significant predictor of the occurrence of male-to-female abuse for both male and female relationship participants. The other characteristics were each only predictive for either males (verbal IQ, fighting, attitudes about sex and relationships, and past sexual behavior) or females (relationship with mother, school attachment, drinking behaviors, and depression). Analyses also revealed that associations between various individual-level characteristics and relationship abuse were dependent on relationship seriousness. These findings suggest that relationship seriousness, which did not in itself predict abuse, may act as a catalyst for the influence of some individual-level characteristics on the occurrence of abuse in relationships. 6 tables and 35 references