Dating Violence against Adolescent Girls: Research and Prevention

1
Dating Violence against Adolescent
GirlsResearch and Prevention

• Jay G. Silverman, Ph.D.
• Assistant Professor of Society, Human Development
  and Health
• Director of Violence Prevention Practice
• Harvard School of Pubic Health

2
Definitions of Intimate Partner Violence

• AMA (1992) A pattern of coercive behaviors that
  may include repeated battering and injury,
  psychological abuse, sexual assault, progressive
  social isolation, depravation and intimidation
• APA(1994) Physical, visual, verbal or sexual
  acts that are experienced as a threat, invasion,
  or assault that have the effect of hurting,
  degrading, and/or taking away ability to contact
  another individual
• CDC (1999) Physical or sexual violence, threat
  of physical or sexual violence, or psychological
  abuse when there has also been prior physical or
  sexual violence or prior threat of physical or
  sexual violence

3
Gendered Nature of IPV

• Rate Differences
• 3 to 6 times incidences in criminal and
  behavioral surveys (Bachman Saltzman, 1996
  Tjaden Thoennes, 1998)
• Injury Differences
• Twice as likely to sustain injuries from attacks
  from intimate partners (Tjaden Thoennes, 1998)
• Homicide Differences
• 3 times the number of women are killed to
  intimate partners each year than the number of
  men killed by intimate partners (USDOJ, 1998)

4
Lifetime and Annual Prevalence of Adult Intimate
Partner Violence

• 1 in 4 (25) US women report ever experiencing
  physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence
  (Tjaden Thoennes, 2000)
• Between 1.5 and 2 of US women report
  experiencing physical or sexual intimate partner
  violence in the past year (Tjaden Thoennes,
  2000 Hathaway et al., 2000)
• Between 10 and 69 of women around the world
  experience IPV during their lifetimes (Heise,
  Ellsberg, and Gottemoeller, 1999)

5
Other Forms of IPV

• Sexual Abuse
• 8 of women report being raped by an intimate
  partner (Tjaden Thoennes, 1998)
• Emotional Abuse/Threats of Violence
• 34 of women report serious emotional abuse from
  an intimate male partner (Hegarty Bush, 2002)
• Economic Abuse
• 60 of women experiencing physical partner
  violence report economic abuse (Hass et al.,
  2000)
• Immigration-related Abuse
• 1 in 8 immigrant women and 1 in 4 battered
  immigrant women report abuse directly related to
  their legal immigrant status (Hass et al., 2000)

6
Longer-Term Health Concerns Related to IPV
(non-injury)

• Digestive Problems (e.g., diarrhea)
• Abdominal Pain
• Urinary Tract Infections
• STDs
• Pelvic Pain
• Headaches
• Chronic back and neck pain
• (Campbell et al., 2002 Coker et al., 2000
  Lesserman et al., 1998 Plichta, 1996)

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Adolescent Dating Violence

• 90 of adolescents report dating (Wolfe
  Feiring, 2000)
• Half of adolescents report having sexual
  intercourse (CDC, 2002)
• 75 of adolescent girls date older boys (Foshee,
  1996)
• A third of adolescents experiencing dating
  violence view assault as a romantic act (Roscoe
  and Kelsey, 1986)

8
Lifetime and Annual Prevalence of Adolescent
Dating Violence

• 1 in 5 (20) report ever experiencing physical
  and/or sexual dating violence (Silverman et al.,
  2001)
• 1 in 10 (10) report experiencing physical dating
  violence in the past year (CDC, 2002)

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Relationships of Dating Violence to Age and
Race/Ethnicity

• Age
• MA and U.S. female adolescents age 16 and older
  were more likely to be victims of physical,
  sexual and combined physical and sexual dating
  violence than participants ages 14 or 15 (ps
  
• Race/Ethnicity
• White MA females adolescents were more likely
  than Black, Hispanic/Latino, or Asian
  participants to be victims of physical and
  combined physical and sexual dating violence
  (ps

10
Substance Useand Dating Violence
ORAdj.4.0 (95CI2.1-7.5) ORAdj.4.7
(95CI2.3-9.6)
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Unhealthy Weight Control and Dating Violence
ORAdj.2.2 (95CI1.2-4.0) ORAdj.3.2
(95CI1.8-5.5)
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Sexual Risk and Pregnancyand Dating Violence MA
ORAdj.7.8 (95CI2.5-22.4) ORAdj.6.3
(95CI3.4-11.7)
13
Sexual Risk and Pregnancyand Dating Violence
U.S.
ORAdj.2.0 (95CI1.4-3.1) ORAdj.1.8
(95CI1.3-2.4)
14
Sexual Risk and Pregnancyand Dating Violence MA
ORAdj.7.8 (95CI2.5-22.4) ORAdj.6.3
(95CI3.4-11.7)
15
Sexual Risk and Pregnancyand Dating Violence
U.S.
ORAdj.1.5 (95CI1.1-2.2) ORAdj.1.3
(95CI1.0-1.7)
16
Suicidality and Dating Violence
ORAdj.5.8 (95CI3.7-9.0) ORAdj.7.6
(95CI4.7-12.3)
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Conclusions

• Dating violence victimization is extremely
  prevalent among adolescent females
• Risk for dating violence victimization increases
  with age
• Victimization occurs across all racial/ethnic
  groups
• Victims are at increased risk for a broad range
  of important adolescent health concerns
• Vulnerability is heightened for those
  experiencing dual victimization through both
  physical and sexual violence

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Challenges for Research and Prevention

• Inconsistent Findings re Gender Differences
• Many studies find similar rates
• Girls report more minor forms Boys report more
  severe forms
• Girls report more sexual victimization some
  exceptions
• Girls more likely to report self-defense as
  motivation in most studies

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Challenges for Research and Prevention

• Measurement
• Initiating vs. any violence
• Impact/Injury
• Reactions
• Many different measures
• Definitions of dating partner

20
Challenges for Research and Prevention

• Lack of Strong Evaluation
• Most do not include behavior assessment
• Smaller samples
• Lack of longer-term follow-up
• Inadequate comparisons
• Research ethics concerns
• Mixed vs. single gender groups

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Challenges for Research and Prevention

• Diversity of Program Theories
• Communication deficits
• Conflict resolution/management
• Gender inequality
• Single vs. mixed-gender presentation
• Need research to better target primary
  prevention efforts

22
Challenges for Research and Prevention

• Lack of Non-Primary Prevention Programs
• Perpetration intervention
• Survivor support

23
Other Implications for Prevention

• Encourage screening by medical and mental health
  providers
• Train teachers and other practitioners
• Educate children and adolescents
• Raise awareness in communities
• Expand state funding of interventions
• Greater attention to research and intervention
  development/evaluation