Citation

Mumford EA, Taylor BG, Giordano PC. J. Interpers. Violence 2017; ePub(ePub): 886260517693002.

Affiliation

Bowling Green State University, OH, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0886260517693002

PMID

29294662

Abstract

Research has pointed to the salience of friendships in predicting abuse in adolescent dating relationships. The current study investigates the perpetration of physical and sexual dating abuse as predicted by individual conditional tolerance for dating abuse within the context of friendship behaviors and group characteristics. Using two waves of the National Survey of Teen Relationships and Intimate Violence (STRiV; N = 511 daters aged 12-18 years), we investigated the effects of baseline individual tolerance for hitting dating partners and friendship factors on perpetration of physical and sexual adolescent dating abuse (ADA) approximately 1 year later. Conditional tolerance for hitting boyfriends was associated with ADA perpetration in the absence of friendship characteristics. Daters who reported recent discussion of a problem with friends and female daters who named all-girl friendship groups were more likely to report ADA perpetration. Close friendships are an avenue for preventing ADA perpetration. Furthermore, ADA perpetration may be reduced by targeting conditional tolerance for violence particularly against male partners within female friendship groups.

Language: en

Keywords

Survey of Teen Relationships and Intimate Violence (STRiV); adolescent dating abuse; attitudes; peer effects