Citation

Manseau H, Fernet M, Hébert M, Collin-Vézina D, Blais M. Int. J. Soc. Welf. 2008; 17(3): 236-242.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1468-2397.2007.00526.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to explore potential risk factors for severe physical victimisation in dating relationships of adolescent girls in the child protective system (CPS). A total of 196 adolescent Canadian girls within the care of the CPS completed questionnaires containing measures relating to dating and family violence, sexual history and socio-demographic variables. Results showed that the majority of participants had experienced some types of victimisation in their dating relationships, with 53.1 per cent reporting at least one severe physical victimisation experience. Results from bivariate analyses revealed that a history of child sexual abuse and school failure or dropout were not associated with dating victimisation. History of parental physical abuse, living outside the family environment before placement, age of first sexual relationship, number of sexual partners and having been pregnant were related to sustained severe physical dating victimisation. Logistic regression analysis indicates that all factors, save for number of partners and living outside family environment, contributed to the prediction of dating victimisation in multivariate analysis. Having been pregnant increased the odds of sustaining severe physical abuse more than threefold (by 3.60). Implications for intervention and further research are discussed.