The structure of male adolescent peer networks and risk for intimate partner violence perpetration: findings from a national sample

Understanding the Impact of Intimate Partner Violence on Mental Health in Migrant Spanish Women: A Network Analysis Approach

The main aim of this paper was to perform a secondary analysis of a dataset of migrant women in Spain to determine relationships between different types of intimate partner violence (IPV) and psychiatric symptoms, as well as core symptoms within IPV dimensions. The Cyber Aggression item "Sent messages that were threatening or harassing" (Cyber.10) was centrally situated across many measures, having a betweenness of 2.607, a closeness of 2.464, and a strength of 1.513. The research demonstrated how the relationship between multiple IPV and mental health disorders among Spanish migrant women is very multifactorial.

Hostile Masculinity, Male Peer Support for Violence, and Problematic Anger: Linking Childhood Abuse to Men's Partner Violence Perpetration

Child abuse and masculinity have been linked to intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. However, there is a lack of work examining multiple aspects of masculinity as links between early abuse experiences and men's IPV perpetration. Grounded in notions of gendered power and patriarchy, this study aimed to examine hostile masculinity, male peer support for violence against women, and problematic anger as aspects of masculinity connecting childhood victimization and men's violence against women. Structural equation modeling results demonstrated that childhood adversity was indirectly related to IPV perpetration via the proposed factors. However, various patterns emerged based on the type of childhood abuse experienced. Practice-based implications are offered.

Adolescent Social Networks and Physical Intimate Partner Violence Among Colombian Rural Adolescents

The current study analyzes individual and social network correlates of adolescent engagement in physical intimate partner violence (IPV) utilizing socio-centric data from a high-school population of 242 adolescents from rural Colombia. We studied self-reported victimization and perpetration for boys and girls. First, we used logistic regression to explore the relationship between adolescents' IPV engagement and school peers' IPV engagement, school violence victimization, and social network position, controlling for gender and age (N=111). Second, we used social network statistical methods to investigate if there were more friendships of similar IPV status to the adolescent than expected by chance in their social networks. Our results show that the proportion of friends perpetrating physical IPV increased the probability of adolescents' IPV perpetration. Contrarywise, the proportion of friends experiencing IPV victimization decreased with the adolescent's own victimization. Being a victim (a status significantly more common among boys) was also associated with reporting perpetration for both genders. Furthermore, our results contradicted the social network literature, as we found no preferential ties among perpetrators/victims (e.g., adolescents do not seem to befriend each other by IPV engagement). Our study is unique to the global adolescent IPV literature given the scarcity of research examining physical IPV among adolescents in the context of both girls and boys in the context of their school networks. We also add to the understanding of IPV in the case of the global majority of adolescents with the highest rates of IPV victimization (living in Low and Middle-Income Countries).

A Systematic Review of Systems Science Approaches to Understand and Address Domestic and Gender-Based Violence

Purpose

We aimed to synthesize insights from systems science approaches applied to domestic and gender-based violence.

Methods

We conducted a systematic review of systems science studies (systems thinking, group model-building, agent-based modeling [ABM], system dynamics [SD] modeling, social network analysis [SNA], and network analysis [NA]) applied to domestic or gender-based violence, including victimization, perpetration, prevention, and community responses. We used blinded review to identify papers meeting our inclusion criteria (i.e., peer-reviewed journal article or published book chapter that described a systems science approach to domestic or gender-based violence, broadly defined) and assessed the quality and transparency of each study.

Results

Our search yielded 1,841 studies, and 74 studies met our inclusion criteria (45 SNA, 12 NA, 8 ABM, and 3 SD). Although research aims varied across study types, the included studies highlighted social network influences on risks for domestic violence, clustering of risk factors and violence experiences, and potential targets for intervention. We assessed the quality of the included studies as moderate, though only a minority adhered to best practices in model development and dissemination, including stakeholder engagement and sharing of model code.

Conclusions

Systems science approaches for the study of domestic and gender-based violence have shed light on the complex processes that characterize domestic violence and its broader context. Future research in this area should include greater dialogue between different types of systems science approaches, consideration of peer and family influences in the same models, and expanded use of best practices, including continued engagement of community stakeholders.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10896-023-00578-8.

Understanding the Roles of Sport and Alcohol Use in Adolescence on Physical and Sexual Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration in Young Adulthood: Findings From a Sex-Stratified Multilevel Analysis

Adolescent peer groups shape beliefs that dictate behavioral norms, including intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration behaviors, with lasting influence into adulthood. This study examines the role of sport engagement and alcohol use in adolescence on perpetration of physical and sexual IPV in young adulthood. A secondary data analysis was conducted with data from 3411 male and 4318 female participants in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health study. Sports and other school activity participation, as well as alcohol use, were measured in middle and high school students. Intimate partner violence perpetration was measured six years later with items from the revised Conflict Tactics Scales. Sex-stratified logistic cross-classified multilevel analyses indicate that, for males, participation in football in adolescence was associated with higher odds of IPV perpetration in young adulthood (aOR:1.26, p = .01). For males and females, non-engagement in any school activities in adolescence was associated with higher odds of IPV perpetration in young adulthood (male aOR: 1.52, p < .01; female aOR: 1.19, p = .04). Alcohol use in adolescence was also associated with higher odds of IPV perpetration in young adulthood for both males and females, even when low level drinking (1-2 drinks in the past 12 months) was reported (male aOR: 1.40, p < .01; female aOR: 1.38, p < .01). Random-effect estimates indicate small but significant contributions of adolescent peer, school, and neighborhood contexts on IPV perpetration in young adulthood for both boys and girls. These findings highlight that football engagement among boys, and alcohol use among boys and girls, are linked to longer-term risk for IPV perpetration, but engagement in other sports and school activities appear to serve as protective factors. These findings, taken with those regarding social context effects, suggest that positive social environment and networks in adolescence, inclusive of those offered in some sports, can be useful platforms for IPV prevention efforts.

Gender-equitable Attitudes, Rape Myth Acceptance, and Perceived Peer Acceptance of Violence among High School Students: An Examination of Gender and Athletic Involvement

Adolescent relationship abuse (ARA) impacts approximately one-third of teens and is associated with myriad negative health outcomes. Studies on college men indicate that athletes hold less gender-equitable attitudes (GEA), greater rape myth acceptance (RMA), and higher perceived peer support for violence (PSV), and that these attitudes are associated with perpetration risk. However, research has yet to compare the prevalence of these attitudes across gender and athletic status among high school students. The present study addressed this gap by examining the direct and interactive effects of gender and athletic status on GEA, RMA, and PSV in a large sample of high school students living in the United States. Results showed that boys involved in athletics reported lower GEA, higher RMA, and higher PSV than girls involved in athletics and non-athletes. Findings demonstrate the importance of addressing attitudes associated with violent behavior among high school boys involved in athletics, in order to reduce risk of ARA.

Perpetration of Adolescent Dating Relationship Abuse: The Role of Conditional Tolerance for Violence and Friendship Factors

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.

Contextual Risk Profiles and Trajectories of Adolescent Dating Violence Perpetration

Social ecological and developmental system perspectives suggest that interactions among factors within and across multiple contexts (e.g., neighborhood, peer, family) must be considered in explaining dating violence perpetration. Yet, to date, most extant research on dating violence has focused on individual, rather than contextual predictors, and used variable-centered approaches that fail to capture the configurations of factors that may jointly explain involvement in dating violence. The current study used a person-centered approach, latent profile analysis, to identify key configurations (or profiles) of contextual risk and protective factors for dating violence perpetration across the neighborhood, school, friend and family contexts. We then examine the longitudinal associations between these contextual risk profiles, assessed during middle school, and trajectories of psychological and physical dating violence perpetration across grades 8 through 12. Five contextual risk profiles were identified: school, neighborhood, and family risk; school and family risk; school and friend risk; school and neighborhood risk; and low risk. The highest levels of psychological and physical perpetration across grades 8 through 12 were among adolescents in the profile characterized by high levels of school, neighborhood, and family risk. Results suggest that early interventions to reduce violence exposure and increase social regulation across multiple social contexts may be effective in reducing dating violence perpetration across adolescence.

The Mediating Role of Romantic Attachment in the Relationship Between Attachment to Parents and Aggression

BACKGROUND

A secure attachment style could promote more intimacy in romantic relationships, while an insecure attachment style could be correlated with less positive romantic relationships in adulthood. Numerous studies have noted that a secure attachment to parents was correlated with lower levels of aggression, whereas insecure attachments were associated with higher levels of aggression. We aimed to investigate the role of the attachment system as a mediator of the expression of aggressiveness during adolescence. Specifically, we considered that the attachment to parents and peers could influence one's attachment to a romantic partner.

METHODS

We empirically tested whether there were relationships of parent and peer attachment on aggressiveness mediated by romantic attachment style. Participants of the study included 411 students.

RESULTS

Results indicated that for males an insecure father-child attachment style seems to be associated with higher levels of anxiety and avoidance in romantic attachments and then with aggressiveness. For females, an insecure mother-child attachment style seems to be associated with higher levels of aggressiveness.

CONCLUSION

The attachment to parents and to peers plays a key role in defining romantic attachment according to gender, and these dimensions in turn tend to affect the levels of aggressiveness.

Partner Type Matters: Differences in Cross-Sectional Predictors of Men's Sexual Aggression in Casual and Steady Relationships

Researchers rarely consider if different theoretical models are needed to understand the etiology of men's sexual aggression against women in steady as compared to casual relationships. A modified confluence model was evaluated with survey data from 556 young, single men. Hostile masculinity was the only assessed risk factor that had a direct relationship to sexual aggression against steady and casual partners. Impersonal sex and friends' approval of forced sex were directly related to sexual aggression against casual partners; whereas, heavy alcohol consumption was directly related to sexual aggression against steady partners. Psychopathy-related personality traits were indirectly related to both types of sexual aggression. The model explained a moderate amount of variance in casual date perpetration, but only a small amount of variance in steady date perpetration. Thus, more research and theory is needed to understand violence in this type of relationship.

Connecting the Dots: State Health Department Approaches to Addressing Shared Risk and Protective Factors Across Multiple Forms of Violence

Violence takes many forms, including intimate partner violence, sexual violence, child abuse and neglect, bullying, suicidal behavior, and elder abuse and neglect. These forms of violence are interconnected and often share the same root causes. They can also co-occur together in families and communities and can happen at the same time or at different stages of life. Often, due to a variety of factors, separate, "siloed" approaches are used to address each form of violence. However, understanding and implementing approaches that prevent and address the overlapping root causes of violence (risk factors) and promote factors that increase the resilience of people and communities (protective factors) can help practitioners more effectively and efficiently use limited resources to prevent multiple forms of violence and save lives. This article presents approaches used by 2 state health departments, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, to integrate a shared risk and protective factor approach into their violence prevention work and identifies key lessons learned that may serve to inform crosscutting violence prevention efforts in other states.

Interactions of adolescent social experiences and dopamine genes to predict physical intimate partner violence perpetration

Objectives

We examined the interactions between three dopamine gene alleles (DAT1, DRD2, DRD4) previously associated with violent behavior and two components of the adolescent environment (exposure to violence, school social environment) to predict adulthood physical intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration among white men and women.

Methods

We used data from Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a cohort study following individuals from adolescence to adulthood. Based on the prior literature, we categorized participants as at risk for each of the three dopamine genes using this coding scheme: two 10-R alleles for DAT1; at least one A-1 allele for DRD2; at least one 7-R or 8-R allele for DRD4. Adolescent exposure to violence and school social environment was measured in 1994 and 1995 when participants were in high school or middle school. Intimate partner violence perpetration was measured in 2008 when participants were 24 to 32 years old. We used simple and multivariable logistic regression models, including interactions of genes and the adolescent environments for the analysis.

Results

Presence of risk alleles was not independently associated with IPV perpetration but increasing exposure to violence and disconnection from the school social environment was associated with physical IPV perpetration. The effects of these adolescent experiences on physical IPV perpetration varied by dopamine risk allele status. Among individuals with non-risk dopamine alleles, increased exposure to violence during adolescence and perception of disconnection from the school environment were significantly associated with increased odds of physical IPV perpetration, but individuals with high risk alleles, overall, did not experience the same increase.

Conclusion

Our results suggested the effects of adolescent environment on adulthood physical IPV perpetration varied by genetic factors. This analysis did not find a direct link between risk alleles and violence, but contributes to growing research indicating that if genetic factors contribute to perpetration, this relationship is likely complicated and the result of interactions with other factors.

The Social Networks of Homeless Youth Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence

While there is a growing body of research on intimate partner violence (IPV) experienced by the housed youth population, a limited amount is known about IPV experienced by homeless youth. To our knowledge, no previous studies have examined how homeless youths' experience of IPV is related to their social network, even though the social networks of homeless youth have been shown to be significant indicators of health and mental health. The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between IPV, gender, and social networks among a sample of 386 homeless youth in Los Angeles, California. Results revealed that one fifth of the sample experienced IPV in the past year. Stratified regression models revealed that IPV was not significantly related to any measure of male social networks; however, females who experienced IPV had more male friends (β = 2.03, SE = 0.89, p < .05) than females who did not experience IPV. Female homeless youth who witnessed family violence during childhood had more male friends (β = 2.75, SE = 1.08, p < .05), but those who experienced sexual abuse during childhood had fewer male friends (β = -2.04, SE = 0.93, p < .05). Although there was no significant difference in the rate of IPV victimization across genders, the context of this abuse appears to be drastically different. The results suggest that females with more male friendships are at greater risk for exposure to IPV. To date, there are few effective youth-targeted IPV prevention programs and none have been shown to be effective with homeless youth. These results provide insight into future program development.

The peer context and the development of the perpetration of adolescent dating violence

The peer context is a central focus in research on adolescent risk behaviors but few studies have investigated the role of the peer context in the perpetration of adolescent dating violence. This longitudinal study examined between-subjects and within-person contemporaneous and lagged effects of peer attributes, measured with social network analyses, on trajectories of dating violence perpetration and determined if effects varied by grade and/or sex of the adolescent. Data are from adolescents who participated in a five-wave panel study beginning when they were in 7 through 9th grade and ending when they were in 10 through 12th grade (n = 3,412); half were male, 40.5 % were white, 49.9 % were black and 10.4 % were of another race/ethnicity. Significant between-subjects effects indicate that adolescents who typically have friends who use dating violence, and girls who are typically high in social status, are at increased risk for using dating violence throughout adolescence. Adolescents who typically have high quality friendships and girls who typically have friends with pro-social beliefs are at decreased risk for using dating violence throughout adolescence. Significant within-person contemporaneous effects indicate that both boys and girls reported lower levels of dating violence than usual at times when they had more friends with pro-social beliefs, and reported higher levels of dating violence than usual at times when they had higher social status. None of the lagged effects were significant and none of the effects varied across grade. These findings suggest that the peer context plays an important role in the development of the perpetration of adolescent dating violence.

The interplay between interpersonal stress and psychological intimate partner violence over time for young at-risk couples

The substantial number of young people in romantic relationships that involve intimate partner violence, a situation deleterious to physical and mental health, has resulted in increased attention to understanding the links between risk factors and course of violence. The current study examined couples' interpersonal stress related to not liking partners' friends and not getting along with parents as contextual factors associated with couples' psychological partner violence and determined whether and when couples' friend and parent stress increased the likelihood of couples' psychological partner violence. A linear latent growth curve modeling approach was used with multiwave measures of psychological partner violence, friend stress, parent stress, and relationship satisfaction obtained from 196 men at risk for delinquency and their women partners over a 12-year period. At the initial assessment, on average, the men were age 21.5 years and the women were age 21 years. Findings indicated that couples experiencing high levels of friend and parent stress were more likely to engage in high levels of psychological partner violence and that increases in couples' friend stress predicted increases in couples' partner violence over time, even when accounting for the couples' relationship satisfaction, marital status, children in the home, and financial strain. Interactive effects were at play when the couples were in their early 20s, with couples being most at risk for increases in psychological partner violence if they experienced both high friend stress and low relationship satisfaction. Couples' friend stress had the greatest effect on psychological partner violence when the couples were in their early to mid 20s when levels of friend stress were high. As the couples reached their 30s, low relationship satisfaction became the leading predictor of couples' psychological partner violence.

Violent peers, network centrality, and intimate partner violence perpetration by young men

PURPOSE

To measure the association between affiliation with violent peers in adolescence and intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration by men in early adulthood, and how peer network structure influences the strength of this association.

METHODS

Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we analyzed a cohort of male subjects, originally in grades 7-12, reporting on sexual relationships 7 years later. At baseline, peer network violence was estimated as the average of network members' reports of their frequency of fighting during the past year, and centrality (number of friendships) was measured. Logistic regression was used to estimate associations between peer network violence, network centrality, and perpetration of IPV in recent intimate relationships.

RESULTS

The probability of IPV perpetration was 37% for young men with a large number of friends (>13) engaging in an average of six to seven fights in the past year. However, young men in small- (<6 friends) or medium-sized peer networks (6-13 friends) with these same levels of violence had probabilities of IPV perpetration between 5% and 7%.

CONCLUSIONS

School-based interventions that target fighting by male subjects can reduce risk of IPV perpetration later in life.

School bullying perpetration and other childhood risk factors as predictors of adult intimate partner violence perpetration

OBJECTIVE

To assess the relationship between bullying peers as a child and adult intimate partner violence perpetration in a clinic-based sample of adult men. School bullying perpetration and intimate partner violence perpetration are both thought to stem from desire for power and control over others.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional survey was conducted between January 2005 and December 2006.

SETTING

Three urban community health centers in Boston, Massachusetts.

PARTICIPANTS

Men aged 18 to 35 years (n = 1491) seeking services at participating community health centers.

MAIN EXPOSURE

School bullying perpetration.

OUTCOME MEASURE

Past-year physical or sexual violence perpetration against a female partner (intimate-partner violence [IPV]).

RESULTS

Two-fifths of men reported perpetrating school bullying as a child (n = 610; 40.9%). Men who rarely bullied in school were 1.53 times more likely to perpetrate past-year IPV than men who did not bully (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-2.29); this risk was elevated to 3.82 times more likely to perpetrate any past-year IPV for those men who bullied peers frequently (95% CI, 2.55-5.73).

CONCLUSIONS

The present study indicates that bullying peers in school as a child, especially frequent bullying perpetration, is associated with increased risk for men's perpetration of IPV as an adult. The effect remains strong after controlling for common prior risk factors for both bullying and IPV perpetration. Future research is needed to discern the mechanisms and underlying root causes of abusive behavior, such as power and control, as a means to prevent violence perpetration across settings and life stages.

Neighborhood-level factors associated with physical dating violence perpetration: results of a representative survey conducted in Boston, MA

Neighborhood-level characteristics have been found to be associated with different forms of interpersonal violence, but studies of the relationship between these characteristics and adolescent dating violence are limited. We examined 6 neighborhood-level factors in relation to adolescent physical dating violence perpetration using both adolescent and adult assessments of neighborhood characteristics, each of which was aggregated across respondents to the neighborhood level. Data came from an in-school survey of 1,530 public high school students and a random-digit-dial telephone survey of 1,710 adult residents of 38 neighborhoods in Boston. Approximately 14.3% of the youth sample reported one or more acts of physical aggression toward a dating partner in the month preceding the survey. We calculated the odds of past-month physical dating violence by each neighborhood-level factor, adjusting for school clustering, gender, race, and nativity. In our first 6 models, we used the adolescent assessment of neighborhood factors and then repeated our procedures using the adult assessment data. Using the adolescent assessment data, lower collective efficacy (AOR = 1.95, 95% CI = 1.09-3.52), lower social control (AOR = 1.92, 95% CI = 1.07-3.43), and neighborhood disorder (AOR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.05-1.35) were each associated with increased likelihood of physical dating violence perpetration. However, when we used the adult version of the neighborhood assessment data, no neighborhood factor predicted dating violence. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.